The town of Lytton, B.C., was nearly destroyed by a blaze that immediately followed a record-setting heatwave in June 2021. Photo: APTN file
Sweltering summer weather blanketed much of the country Monday, with Environment Canada issuing heat warnings for parts of eight provinces and the Northwest Territories.
In British Columbia, a record-breaking heat wave is expected to last into the middle of the week; temperatures in the province’s southern Interior are forecast to climb into the low 40s.
The weather agency says the scorching temperatures in B.C. are caused by a ridge of high pressure, with heat warnings covering much of the southern part of the province, including Metro Vancouver. On Sunday, more than 20 daily heat records were broken.
The heat stretches east into the Prairies, where temperatures in some parts of Alberta are forecast to reach about 35 C by Wednesday. Heat warnings were in effect Monday across most of the province and into Saskatchewan, where daily highs in Regina are expected to hover around 30 C for the whole week.
The tiny community of Fort Liard, in the southwestern corner of the Northwest Territories, is forecast to hit 30 C until Wednesday, well above its average high of 23 C.
Update
Environment Canada is scheduled to provide an update Monday afternoon on the heat wave in Western Canada.
On the other side of the country, daytime highs around 30 C are forecast across much of Atlantic Canada, with humidex readings close to 40 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
Meanwhile, the European climate service Copernicus is reporting the global temperature in June hit a record high for the 13th straight month. The agency said June was the 12th consecutive month the world was 1.5 C warmer than the pre-industrial average. Most countries agreed to try to limit global warming to 1.5 C as part of the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Eastern Canada, which was hit by an intense heat wave in mid-June, is one of the regions where temperatures were most above average.
June was also the 15th month in a row of record-high sea surface temperatures, according to Copernicus.
El Niño
A strong El Niño weather pattern helped drive the spike in global temperatures over the last year, according to the United Nations weather agency. But the World Meteorological Organization warned last month that the last nine years have been the warmest on record even with the cooling influence of a multi-year La Niña event.
“The end of El Niño does not mean a pause in long-term climate change as our planet will continue to warm due to heat-trapping greenhouse gases,” said WMO deputy secretary-general Ko Barrett in a June statement.
Later this week, remnants of Hurricane Beryl, which devastated parts of the Caribbean last week, are forecast to move into Ontario and Quebec, bringing rain and a risk of thunderstorms.
