June ends with exceptional heat

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2021-07-01 08:30:09

An exceptional and dangerous heatwave is baking the Northwestern USA and Western Canada in areas which are more synonymous with the cold. Temperatures have reached more than 45.0°C on consecutive days, with extremely warm nights in between.

This unprecedent event is having multiple major impacts:  heat stress in people, animals and vegetation; air quality (pollutants due to hot stable air); forest fire risk; possibility of landslides caused by glacier melting in mountains; damages and malfunctioning of infrastructure and transport systems not prepared for such high temperatures; and many other social and economic risks.

National and local meteorological services have issued many heat warnings and advisories and it is to be hoped that heat-health early warning services will limit the death toll.

The all-time Canadian record was broken on Sunday, with Lytton in British Columbia recording 46.6°C (1.6°C higher than the previous record set on 5 July 1937). Less than 24 hours later, Lytton broke this record again, reaching 47.9°C on Monday. It then broke it for a third time on 29 June with a temperature of 49.6°C.

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