As Canada continues to experience warmer-than-usual temperatures this winter, the country must gear up for extreme weather events, including drought, wildfires and floods in the spring and summer, experts told Global News. Global News meteorologist Anthony Farnell said this year’s high temperatures were due to El Niño, which is a phenomenon where the water in the equatorial region of the Pacific warms and weather patterns across North America change. “This year was likely even warmer because of the effects of climate change. In the last few days, winter has returned to Western Canada but a large ridge is pumping very mild air across the eastern half of the country,” Farnell said. Kent Moore, a professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto Mississauga, said this warm weather has also meant reduced precipitation.