Every summer the temperatures seem to break new records. The thermometer panics, the heat stuns the population and politicians are astonished. In recent days, western Canada and the United States are suffocating as the whole world watches this stunned furnace. “The temperatures recorded this week are unprecedented. There have been deaths and the risk of forest fires is at a dangerously high level,” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, echoing US President Joe Biden a little earlier.
Already the toll of the “heat dome”, in other words of the high pressures which trap the hot air in the region, is heavy: several hundred sudden deaths, hospitalizations on the rise and the multiplication of forest fires.
Young girls splash a waterfall in a Washington, DC park on June 28, 2021, as a heat wave sweeps across much of the United States.
AFP
“People are suffering, children cannot play outside, the roads are creaking”, noted Joe Biden on the sidelines of an interview with Democratic and Republican governors, identifying 36 fires currently active in the states of the Pacific coast. The northwestern United States, used to temperate and generally humid weather, has recorded records in recent days, with a high of 46.1 degrees Celsius Monday in Portland. The port city was breathing a little easier on Wednesday, as the heat wave slowly moved inland.
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Across the border, several fires were also underway in Canada on Wednesday, including one near the village of Lytton, in British Columbia, some 250 km northeast of Vancouver: this is where On Tuesday, a new all-time high for the whole country was recorded at 49.6 degrees Celsius. “The historic heatwave continues to shatter records” and is expected to last until the end of the week, “wrote the Canadian meteorological services, listing a long list of never-before-seen temperatures in Canada, which sometimes break records set in the 19th century.
Pablo Miranda cools off in the Salmon Springs fountain on June 27, 2021 in Portland, Oregon.
Getty Images via AFP
“It’s impossible to stay outside”
The panic of thermometers has claimed victims. At least 486 people have died suddenly since Friday in British Columbia, about three times the average over such a period, authorities said. “Even though it is too early to say for sure how many of these deaths are heat-related, it is likely that this large excess of mortality is attributable to the extreme weather,” said Lisa Lapointe, forensic manager of this Canadian state, fearing a worsening of the balance sheet. “It’s unbearable, it’s impossible to stay outside,” commented Rosa, a resident of metropolitan Vancouver, used to moderate temperatures.
A welcome sign is seen on the door of the Hillcrest Community Center where locals can cool off during the extremely hot temperatures in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, June 30, 2021
AFP
“I hope it never happens again, it’s too much,” she said again. In the neighboring US city of Seattle, emergency physicians have also noted an influx of people affected by heat, including kidney or heart problems. At least sixteen people have died from hyperthermia in the area, according to local newspaper Seattle Times. To help the population cope with the hot weather, and in particular people without a fixed abode, some cities have opened refreshment centers, such as in Vancouver or in theOregon Convention Centerin Portland, where people can lie on mattresses.
“There is little respite at night”
The authorities of the two countries have called on the population to minimize their outings, to drink a lot and to check in on the lonely and elderly, setting up “refreshment centers”, equipped with air conditioning and misters. In the Vancouver area, schools have been closed and vaccination campaigns against Covid-19 suspended. Air conditioners and fans are out of stock. “The duration of this heat wave is worrying, because there is little respite at night,” said the Canadian Minister of the Environment. “We are seeing more and more of this type of extreme weather event in recent years,” he added.
People rest at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Portland, Oregon on June 28, 2021, as a heat wave sweeps across much of the United States.
AFP
“We have to be realistic, we know that this heat wave will not be the last,” said Justin Trudeau. However, its intensity is exceptional. “Global warming is at the root of the dangerous combination of extreme heat and prolonged drought,” Joe Biden said, stressing to climate-skeptical Republicans that it shouldn’t be a “partisan debate. “.
The work of firefighters “is no longer seasonal”, they face disasters all year round, he added, announcing increases in their salaries. About 9000 fire soldiers are currently deployed in the American West, in particular to fight against the progression of the “Lava Fire”, on the edge of Oregon and California, which has already consumed more than 7000 hectares and was not content only at 19% Wednesday at midday.
A man cools off in a fountain at Inner Harbor in Baltimore, Maryland on June 30, 2021, as a heat wave threatens to make it the hottest day of the year in Baltimore.
AFP
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“Hot days are always hotter, dry days always drier: the reality of global warming is before us,” commented Democratic Governor of California Gavin Newsom.
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