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British Columbia’s destructive wildfire season was the No. 1 most significant weather event in Canada in 2018, says Environment Canada.

It was a wild and wacky weather year across the country, from spring flooding in B.C. and New Brunswick to tornadoes in eastern Ontario and western Quebec.

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Canada saw one of the longest, warmest, and driest summers on record, which helped trigger more than 2,000 wildfires across B.C., prompting a provincewide state of emergency for the second year in a row.

“British Columbia saw fires but it was really the smoke that came from these fires that across the country, coast to coast, where 10 million Canadians were gasping and wheezing and smelling and tasting and feeling this polluted air,” said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips in a video statement.

Following one of the hottest Mays on record, lighting in mid-July ignited fires in the Okanagan. Fanned by gusty winds and hot temperatures, the fires eventually scorched more than 12,900 square kilometres of land — more than the previous record of 12,160 square kilometres set in 2017.