Public On-Line Forum/Panel Discussion
8 October 2020, noon to 2PM EDT
Coping with Extreme Weather
Marking the 2nd anniversary of the Ottawa/Gatineau Tornadoes 

Extreme weather events, including tornadoes, floods, ice storms, hurricanes, droughts and blizzards, are a major risk to life, property and the economy in Canada.  The risks are changing as climate changes. The Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) is pleased to announce a free two-hour online forum for the public.  In the first hour, the moderator will introduce presentations from four leading Canadian experts. In the second hour, there will be a panel discussion on questions from the public.

The first talk will present an overview of natural disasters around the world and their costs to society, showing how extreme weather events are a major burden on countries, and how the costs to society have changed in recent decades. The second talk will be on lessons learned about disaster preparedness from the Ottawa/Gatineau tornadoes of September 2018. The third talk will offer a local perspective centred on how individuals in Dunrobin - one of the areas affected during the outbreak - experienced and recovered from this disastrous tornado.  The fourth talk will place the 2018 tornadoes into the larger picture of tornadoes across Canada, looking at how and where tornadoes happen, and whether tornadoes are likely to change as the climate changes.

Click here to register (free)  to have the Zoom link  (https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88313580671) for the forum/discussion sent to you. The proceedings will be recorded live and available to the general public on the CMOS website at a later date.

Moderator: Jim Abraham, Vice-President CMOS, Broadcast Meteorologist

Speaker/ Panelist	Presentation	Expertise
Gordon McBean	A Global Perspective on Evolving Societal Risks from Severe Weather Events	Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction; first Chair, Integrated Research on Disaster Risk International Program; Assistant Deputy Minister (1994-2000), Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment Canada
Peter Kimbell	Preparedness & Response to Eastern Ontario Tornadoes: Lessons Learned from Ottawa/Gatineau, Sept. 2018	Warning Preparedness Meteorologist, Environment and Climate Change Canada
David Sills	An Emerging Awareness of Tornado Risk in Canada: Past, Present and Future	Executive Director, Northern Tornadoes Project, Western University
Jennifer Spinney	Understanding and Improving Societal Resilience and Response to Severe Weather Events such as Tornadoes, Floods and Ice Storms	Environmental Anthropologist, Assistant Professor, Disaster & Emergency Management, York University

Organized by: Leonard Barrie, Gordon McBean.

Co-Sponsors: CMOS Ottawa, Canadian Club of Rome-Ottawa, Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction.

Format: The first hour will be the expert presentations; the second hour will be a panel discussion featuring selected and anonymous questions posed to the panelists by the public. The proceedings will be recorded live with Zoom, and will be available to the general public on the CMOS website at a later date.