A lifeguard on duty at Britannia Beach as people take to the waters and shores of the Ottawa River on July 4.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Heat warnings are in effect across most of Ontario, where temperatures were expected to climb to dangerous levels in a week where the world marked its hottest day ever recorded.
Environment Canada issued alerts Tuesday morning for most of the province because of a “multi-day heat event,” with temperatures expected to surpass 30 C, with humidex values upward of 40. The extreme heat warnings in Ontario were issued as British Columbia begins rolling out a program to distribute thousands of air conditioners to vulnerable populations, two years after a deadly heat wave killed more than 600 people in the province.
Trudy Kidd, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, said temperatures were expected to taper off in the northern parts of Ontario but continue in southern regions of the province through at least Thursday. The air quality could also deteriorate, Ms. Kidd explained, but as a result of the heat rather than the smoke from wildfires that has led to poor conditions in recent weeks.
The weather warnings in Ontario were issued after the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction registered the average global temperature reaching 17.01 C on Monday, surpassing the previous record set in August, 2016. Scientists said climate change, combined with an emerging El Nino pattern, were to blame.
This week also marks the first extreme heat event in 2023 for most of Southern Ontario, and Ms. Kidd said residents may not be used to the prolonged warm temperatures. She encouraged people to take extra precautions such as drinking lots of water and avoiding working or exercising outdoors, and watch for the effects of heat illness when outdoors, including swelling, rashes and heat exhaustion.
“I know there’s a lot of the general population of people who say ‘well this is summer,’ and it is for sure, but there’s an at-risk population that needs to take extra care,” she said in an interview.
The City of Toronto extended hours at seven outdoor pools by three and four hours to keep them open until 11:45 p.m. on Tuesday. In Mississauga, spray pad hours were extended until 11 p.m.
Toronto is also providing access to more than 550 public facilities during operating hours throughout the summer months as part of its heat relief strategy. These sites offering air conditioning and other forms of cooling include libraries, drop-in sites, malls, community centres and pools.
For people experiencing homelessness, the city has seven 24/7 respite sites available with resting spaces and access to meals.
There were also heat warnings in parts of Quebec and the Northwest Territories, while parts of the Southern United States have been dealing with severe heat for days.
Temperatures are expected to soar across large parts of the world after the El Nino weather pattern emerged in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, the World Meteorological Organization said.
Reuters
In B.C., Health Minister Adrian Dix last week said that the province would provide $10-million to BC Hydro to provide 8,000 air conditioning units over three years to people who are low-income and medically vulnerable to heat. The announcement marked the two-year anniversary of a week-long extreme heat event in late June, 2021, during which 619 people died and temperatures reached more than 40 C in many parts of the province.
A panel convened by the BC Coroners Service to review the deaths found that almost all occurred indoors, 67 per cent were among people aged 70 and older, 56 per cent lived alone and most were in homes without adequate cooling systems. Deaths were also higher among people with certain chronic conditions.
Since then, the province has invested in community-based climate mitigation initiatives and ventilation upgrades to long-term care facilities, launched a direct-to-cellphone heat alert and response system, and created an extreme heat preparedness guide. Alex Boston, who consults governments on climate and cities and sat on the coroner’s panel, commended the province but said the government has done little in the way of long-term preventative measures. He cited as examples the need for municipalities to have tree protection and tree restoration targets, and for the province to update building codes to accommodate for extreme heat.
B.C. is proposing that all new homes provide one living space that is designed not to exceed 26 C, through passive cooling measures such as shading or from a cooling appliance. The province expects to update the BC Building code later this year and bring it into force in December, according to the Ministry of Housing.
Mr. Boston noted the B.C. government’s air conditioner initiative doesn’t distinguish between different parts of the province. He added that the program will increase costs for households to operate the units, even though external window coverings could provide sufficient cooling at a lower cost.
“In many ecoclimatic zones, you don’t need air conditioners. The most important thing you need are actually devices to keep heat off your windows,” he said, noting that external blinds and a fan and can reduce heat by about 15 C.
With a report from Reuters
Dustin Cook
Andrea Woo