New temperature record in western Canada

After suffocating this summer under a historic heat dome, a region in western Canada saw a new record high in mercury this week… up to 22.5 degrees Celsius. This temperature was recorded in Penticton, in central British Columbia, Canada’s westernmost province that has experienced frequent severe weather events for several months.

“It’s a record, otherwise it’s equal to a record” It dates back to 1982 in Ontario, and Armelle Castellane, a meteorologist for Environment Canada, told AFP on Thursday.

Penticton, with a population of about 33,000, is located a few hundred kilometers from Lytton, a town 250 kilometers northeast of Vancouver which, at the end of June, set the historic temperature record in Canada with 49.6 degrees Celsius, which 90% destroyed. by a forest fire. in Penticton, The absolute record was 11.2 Celsius in 2012, then yesterday the maximum temperature was 22.5 degrees Celsius, which is definitely a record.”, told AFP Gregory Yang, a meteorologist at Environment Canada.

This area of ​​British Columbia is also the area that suffered the effects of the thermal dome this summer. “Historical”That killed more than 500 people was followed by major fires. “Since September, we’ve had a lot of heat coming in from the subtropics”Armel Castellan explained.

For about a week, a “atmospheric river” It descends in southwest British Columbia. Heavy rains have caused catastrophic flooding since mid-November in the territory, events that authorities have linked to the effects of climate change.

Unusual winter heat also in the United States

Recent studies show the direct responsibility of climate change in certain heat waves. Thus, the unusual heatwave in Canada in June, with temperatures approaching 50°C, would have been “Almost impossible” Without overheating, according to scientists at the World Weather Attribution.

Unusual winter heat spread across the northwestern United States, with December heat records broken or equalizing on Wednesday at various points in Washington, Montana, Wyoming and North Dakota. Temperatures there can be nearly 20 degrees higher than normal. This warm front shifted toward the center of the country, for example a record temperature on December 2 in Omaha, Nebraska, where the temperature was 20 degrees Celsius on Thursday afternoon.

In recent years, the American West has faced increasingly noticeable climate risks, in California in particular. As such, state authorities are planning to create a heatwave warning system from 2022 that would categorize each of these episodes according to the number of frightening deaths in order to reinforce preventive measures. As with hurricanes, each of these phenomena will be given a name and a danger indicator.

Instead of just saying It will be 40.5 degrees Celsius., the alarm will indicate “This is how many people will die”, summarized in Washington Post Larry Calcasten, the scientific advisor to the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation who is promoting this initiative. Mr. Calkestein’s team anticipates three classes of heat waves; The phenomenon of indicator 1 would not pose a significant risk, with the mortality rate increasing between 0% and 10%; Category 3 will be much more deadly, compared to the extraordinary heat wave that hit the northwestern United States and British Columbia in June.