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home / 世界杯决赛2022

extreme heat shatters b.c. temperature records in june

b.c. should expect more intense heat waves, more often, says climate expert.

by vancouver sun

jul 4 2021
read time 2 minute read
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by: nathan griffiths

blazing heat in b.c. shattered dozens of temperature records in june and broke canadian standards — twice — contributing to a  spike in sudden deaths in the province and leading to an explosion of wildfires across b.c. that killed at least two people and destroyed lytton.

in the days before fire swept through the village, lytton had set high-temperature records on three days, including a new canadian record of 49.6ºc — 10 degrees higher than the village’s previous record of 39.6ºc set in 2008.
eight other municipalities in b.c. saw high-temperature records broken by 10 degrees or more, including cache creek, which broke a 2015 mark by nearly 12 degrees. dawson creek, gibsons and sechelt also broke previous temperature records by more than 11 degrees.

zafar adeel, executive director of the pacific water research centre at simon fraser university, said the wildfires following the heat wave were an example of what he called a “cascading hazard,” where one extreme event — such as a heat wave — triggers others.

“heat waves, as you can imagine, can trigger or amplify forest fires,” he said, “but after forest fires, because your surface is denuded of vegetation, you get these extreme flash floods coming through.”
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adeel pointed to fort mcmurray, alta., as a prime example. in 2016, record-setting temperatures in the city preceded a massive wildfire that led to the largest wildfire evacuation in alberta history. massive flooding later forced many of the same people from their homes as they fled the rising waters.
adeel said b.c. should expect more intense heat waves in the future and for them to happen more often.

more than a decade ago, the intergovernmental panel on climate change said the average temperature in canada would go up, he said — and in western canada that rise would be “higher than the rest of the country.”

wildfires and flooding aren’t the only risks posed by heat waves. on friday, chief coroner lisa lapointe said 719 sudden deaths were reported in b.c. during the heat wave, over three times what would be typically expected during that period.

“we are releasing this information as it is believed likely the extreme weather b.c. has experienced in the past week is a significant contributing factor to the increased number of deaths,” lapointe wrote in a statement.
ngriffiths@postmedia.com
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