British Columbians have been frying almost 50 degrees since the beginning of the week
About 500 victims in 5 days
The car windows are sprayed and melted
Terrifying, suffocating, crushing. Definitions are not enough for British Columbians in Canada to describe the heat that has plagued this northern part of the world since the beginning of the week.
On Wednesday in the Canadian town of Leaton, the thermometers showed 49.6 degrees, given that at this time of year the temperatures there usually do not reach 25 degrees. In the evening of the same day, the entire village had to be evacuated due to a huge fire that engulfed it in less than 15 minutes, Mayor Jean Polderman told the CBS. As early as Sunday in Leaton were measured 46.6 degrees, which
broke the 84-year-old
record
How did it happen that Western Canada became the Sahara, and what is the reason for this climate change? Meteorologists attribute the region’s atypical infernal heat to the formation of a “dome” of static hot air under high pressure that has spread from California all the way to the Arctic. There it is blocked on the spot and gets bigger with time.
Inside the dome, as in a furnace, more and more heat is radiated from the ground. Some compared the phenomenon to a lid on a pressure cooker. These heat domes usually form in temperate climates, so Europe should not be considered spared.
486 sudden deaths have been reported in British Columbia in the last five days, up 195% from last year, the BBC reported. Doctors associate this sharply increased mortality with the unbearable heat. According to local authorities, most of the dead were loners living in homes without ventilation. More than 100 people have died in Vancouver since Friday alone.
In stores portable
air conditioners and
fans are
sold out
In affected areas of Canada, schools and vaccination centers have closed, and social workers are handing out water bottles and hats. In Vancouver, authorities installed makeshift fountains and street sprinklers. There are 25 cooling centers in the city, where those in need can come in to rest or work on their laptops.
People who do not have air conditioners in their homes report that they have spent the night in their cars or in underground garages with their pets. Victims complain that the windows of their cars crack and melt, even though they are not exposed to direct light.
A Vancouver resident told AFP that people were leaving their homes en masse and staying in hotels because of the air conditioners, so there were no vacancies anywhere. The lack of air conditioning in the house is not uncommon for this area, where the climate is cool and humid.
“I am 70 years old, but I have never experienced such a thing,” Janice Holdsworth, who lives in Castlegar, British Columbia, told the BBC. “We put the blinds on all the windows, the fans and humidifiers work around the clock, we keep our feet in basins with cold water, we take a shower every hour and drink tons of liquids,” she said. There is also no relief at night, because temperatures do not fall below 30-35 degrees. According to a study quoted by the BBC last year, this combination of day and night heat is extremely dangerous to human health.
Authorities in British Columbia have warned people not to leave their doors open for ventilation because bears are invading houses to seek coolness. Videos of a woman appeared on social networks
bears with small
teddy bears enter
private pools
to swim and drink water.
The US National Weather Service also warned of a dangerous heat wave in Washington and Oregon. Portland and Seattle reported the highest temperatures since the beginning of statistics, ie. from the 1940s – 46.1 degrees Celsius in Portland and 42.2 in Seattle, respectively. The heat has killed 60 people in Oregon and 20 in Washington state, the AP reported.
Extreme heat combined with drought has already caused several fires. More than 600 acres burned on the California-Oregon border. The American online giant Amazon has opened parts of its headquarters in Seattle for cooling visits. The capacity is 1000 people.
And in Portland, residents have taken refuge in cooling centers set up by the authorities.
US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have said that heat waves are becoming a growing problem for the world, which requires immediate action to reduce emissions.
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