How B.C.’s December atmospheric river compares to historic 2021 event

Severe weather and flooding that hammered southern British Columbia and parts of Alberta in December caused close to $90 million in insured damage, according to preliminary estimates from Catastrophe Indices and Quantification Inc. (CatIQ).

B.C.’s Fraser Valley suffered the vast majority of losses at $74 million in damage, primarily to homes and businesses, Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) says in a press release Friday.

“Severe weather and flooding has once again disrupted the lives of residents and business owners across Southwestern B.C. and Vancouver Island,” says Aaron Sutherland, vice president of IBC’s Pacific and Western regions. “Coming just four years after the devastating 2021 floods, this most recent flood damage is a painful reminder of the need to build B.C.’s resilience and better protect communities from the new weather reality we face.”

The November 2021 atmospheric river event was B.C. costliest severe weather event at more than $675 million in insured damage. At the time, atmospheric rivers flowed over southwestern B.C. for days in November, bringing record rainfall and quickly swelling waterways.

Rivers and streams overflowed, washing away roads, bridges and railways, and flooding farms in up to two metres of water. Serious flood damage was seen in Merritt, Spences Bridge, Princeton and Hope. At the peak of the emergency, nearly 15,000 people were forced from their homes, Canadian Underwriter reported at the time.

Mudslides swept people away in their cars. Rivers carved new routes and washed-out highways and bridges, cutting off major highways into the Interior, which stopped the supply chain from the coast to the rest of the country. Five people died in the associated landslides and flooding.

Media reports say two people died in the most recent atmospheric river: A Chilliwack, B.C. woman was killed by a tree falling in storm winds and a man in Snohomish, Washington was found dead in a submerged vehicle.

Flooding from the December 2025 event led to evacuations and power outages. It damaged homes and farms, disrupting the lives and livelihoods of thousands of British Columbians, IBC says. Flooding also cut off B.C.’s Mainland from the Interior of the province.

Rate of speed

CU reported last month that the 2025 atmospheric river event was unlikely to rival the 2021 one.

The most recent atmospheric river was fast-moving, whereas 2021’s atmospheric rivers lingered over the area, Brian Proctor, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, told the Vancouver Sun.

“In 2021 the atmospheric river really stalled over top of that area and over the northern portion of Washington State as well,” Proctor says. “Whereas this one is still moving — that’s probably the best way to look at it. So, it has the potential to be extremely impactful, but I don’t think it’s going to be anything like what we experienced previously in that record-setting flooding we saw.”

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In the aftermath of the 2021 flooding, the province developed a robust B.C. flood strategy that included measures to better protect families and communities, IBC reports. “Unfortunately, the strategy remains underfunded.”

IBC is calling on the provincial government to prioritize funding for the strategy to better protect residents in the future. This funding should include investment in flood risk mapping, protective infrastructure, and incentives to help households and businesses flood-proof their properties, IBC says.

“Investing in community resilience and damage prevention is always more cost-effective than paying to rebuild year after year following every disaster,” adds Sutherland. “By prioritizing risk reduction and mitigation, the government can increase the number of homeowners that have access to flood insurance, which provides much more robust support than the government disaster assistance that high-risk homeowners are forced to rely on today.”

Jason Contant

Jason has been an award-winning journalist with Canadian Underwriter for more than a decade, including the past three years as associate editor and, before that, as digital editor for seven years.