On average, Canada withstands every year five tropical storms, three million lightning hits and winter temperatures that can dip to -50 C and climb back up to 40 C in summer.

Home to blizzards, droughts, floods, forest fires, tornadoes and hurricanes, our country's climate is one of extremes, experts say.

"The reality here is that we live in one of the toughest countries of the world when it comes to weather. We're nowhere near a utopia where all we worry about are blue skies. Weather is not something we talk about, it's something we fret about," said Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips.

As Atlantic Canada prepares for hurricane Earl, forecast to touch down in Nova Scotia Saturday morning, Phillips looks back at the worst storms the country has encountered:

- The ice storm in 1998 tops the list for Phillips. Millions of residents in Ontario and Quebec were left without electricity for weeks as two year's worth of freezing rain coated cities in just six days in January. The thick layer of ice spread, crippling New Brunswick and the northeastern United States and led to about 30 fatalities. There was enough downed wires and cable to stretch around the world three times, hydro and utility companies determined, calling it the "worst week ever." Insurance companies agreed — the disaster set the country back $4 billion in damages.

- Edmonton was rocked by an afternoon tornado that ripped through Alberta in July 1987, as black funnel clouds swallowed the city, claiming 27 lives and injuring 300. Phillips said the storm, paired with a torrential downpour, was "almost biblical" and locals nicknamed the event "Black Friday." It is the second deadliest tornado to sweep the country, trailing a 1912 storm in Regina that killed 28 people.

- Alberta often experiences natural disasters, Phillips said. On July 12, baseball-sized hailstones peppered cars with dents and soaked all of Calgary. In just minutes, the storm subsided, but its aftermath was 55,000 insurance claims and $400 million in reported damage, making it the most expensive hailstorm in the country. The brief but destructive storm surpassed a 1991 storm, also in Calgary, that spewed golf ball-sized hail.

- In 2003, Hurricane Juan wreaked havoc across Nova Scotia and P.E.I. and left some areas in the region without power for up to two weeks. In a mere two days, Juan caused more than $200 million in damage as it blew across Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, with gusts of wind up to 176 km/h. The storm killed eight people and nearly flattened Halifax's historic Point Pleasant Park, toppling 70 per cent of the park's trees.

- Juan's successor was a blizzard, nicknamed White Juan, that blanketed Atlantic Canada only five months later, in February 2004, when almost 100 centimetres of snow fell, coating Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Phillips said the storm broke a world record as "the greatest amount of snowfall in a single day in a city of more than 300,000 people."