Western Canada has recorded record high winter temperatures.
Montreal:
An area in western Canada has recorded record-high winter temperatures, just months after the country was inundated with a historic global heat dome in the summer, sparking global concern about climate change.
Penticton, a city in central British Columbia, on Wednesday recorded a high of 72.5 degrees Fahrenheit (22.5 degrees Celsius).
“It’s a record, or the equivalent of a record,” said Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan.
Winter temperatures in Canada previously reached 72.5 degrees on December 3, 1982 in the southeastern town of Hamilton, Ontario, Castellan said.
Penticton is located a few hundred miles southeast of Lytton. Located 250 kilometers (155 miles) northeast of Vancouver, Lytton gained international attention during the summer for setting a new Canadian heat record of 49.6 degrees Celsius (121.3 degrees Fahrenheit). before being devastated a few days later by a fire that killed at least two residents.
The province of British Columbia also suffered during the summer as a historic heat dome linked to climate change trapped hot air by high-pressure fronts over western Canada and the western United States. The heat wave exacerbated the wildfires and claimed hundreds of lives.
“Since September, we’ve had a lot of heat coming from the subtropics,” explains Castellan.
Over the past week or so, he said, an “atmospheric river” has raged across southwestern British Columbia, the third so far.
Heavy rainfall has caused catastrophic flooding in the province since mid-November, which authorities also attribute to the effects of climate change.
Recent studies show that climate change is a direct cause of some heat waves. The June Canadian hit would be “virtually unlikely” without human-caused global warming, the scientific association World Weather Allocation said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and was automatically generated from the feed provided.)
