Cooling news for Canada by Helen Willetts
Hot weather has gripped eastern parts of Canada in the first heat wave of the season. The group, Environment Canada have suggested it could be the start of a long hot summer.
In the last few days temperatures have topped 30 degrees Celsius in many parts of eastern Canada. On Sunday temperatures reached 32C in Montreal and in Ottawa, which is some 10 degrees above average. Even though these temperatures may not sound that high, it has felt even hotter, with a high humidity, more like the mid 40’s.
The high temperatures and high humidity have allowed thick soupy smog to form in both Toronto and Ottawa. The smog is also thanks to the lack of recent rain, which has allowed dust particles to become air-borne and have become stagnant in the air over the past few weeks. Toronto only received 20% of its usual rainfall in the month of May, with the dry spells continuing into this month. The city has had only 0.4mm so far this month, when normally it would have had 30mm, a shockingly low 1% of normal.
The smog in Toronto is already a record breaker, in that, the 20th smog advisory was issued yesterday, with this being the highest number issued since 2001, though in 2001, 20 advisories were issued in the entire year. With a long dry summer predicted ahead, it looks likely that this year will exceed that level.
The high occurrence of smog is concerning to the health of the city dwellers, however at present it is the heat that is taking its toll. The health agency said it was people aged between 18 to 30 that were in the highest risk category from the heat because they were the most active, whilst smog was more likely to effect those with asthmas, emphysema and smokers. The Canadian government said that air pollution in Canada kills around 5,000 a year.
The lack of rain and the intense heat has also sparked off a few brush fires which have subsequently spread round the hills of the Ottawa region. Yesterday traffic was diverted for 5 hours, causing chaos on the city roads, while 75 fire-fighters fought fires on the roadsides. Later another fire broke out in the region, causing an estimated $1 million damages.
The warm spell is expected to continue for a few more days before thunderstorms will break it down towards the end of the week, when temperatures are expected to dive to around 18C (64F). The thunderstorms should hopefully ‘wash’ the dust particles and pollutants out of the air to allow the smog to disperse.
This will probably only be a temporary respite as the Met department expect the summer to be long, hot and dry, which is where we started.
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