Assessing Climate Change Risk and Resilience in the Yukon
Priority 2 Floods and fires that affect communities and livelihoods
Findings: Yukon communities are located along rivers or lakes and in or near forested areas. This
makes flooding and wildland fires critical hazards. Climate change is increasing flood risk, and the
conditions for wildland fires are becoming more common due to increased temperatures, drier
forests, and more extreme weather events. Floods and fires can pose health and safety risks,
damage homes and community buildings, property and infrastructure, cause costly damage,
and affect critical services.
The assessment found that both flood and fire hazards need further attention, but that it is
especially important to continue to build capacity for flood mapping, preparedness and response.
This finding was reflected in the scores and in discussions; participants gave a higher risk score to
floods than they did to wildfires.
Wildland fire risk continues to be high across the territory. While wildland fires have always been a
part of the landscape, they pose risks when they have impacts on human values. Special attention
should be paid to high fuel loads around communities and to reducing private-property risks. The
Yukon's ability to respond to wildfires sometimes depends on the availability of firefighters and
personnel, and can be delayed in remote areas or due to resource constraints.
The year 2021 highlighted important lessons for emergency response. Throughout the winter,
Yukon experienced unusually high precipitation. This was followed by a heat wave that lasted
throughout the late spring and summer. The heat resulted in a rapid melt of the record-breaking
snowpack in the alpine areas of the Southern Lakes Region. At the same time, the heat led to
favourable conditions for forest fires and heightened fire risk. As a result, the Yukon experienced
severe wildfires and flooding at the same time, all while emergency response was grappling with
COVID-19. While emergency response efforts were considerable, the combination of floods, fires
and the pandemic stretched the Yukon's capacity beyond its ability to deal with multiple stressors
at once.
The 100-year flood return period, sometimes
referred to as "the 100-year flood," refers to
a rare flooding event that is expected to be
exceeded once every 100 years on average,
and has a one percent chance of happening in
any year. In the past 15 years, severe floods
surpassing the 100-year flood return period
occurred twice in Marsh Lake: once in 2007
and again in 2021. Shown left are flooded
properties at Marsh Lake, 2021.
Photo: Jason Wolsky
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ASSESSING CLIMATE CHANGE: RISK AND RESILIENCE IN THE YUKONView entire presentation