The heat has intensified a 20-year “mega-drought” that has brought a deepening water crisis to the region. The extreme temperatures over a four-day period sunk in as the West Coast was already preparing for yet another severe wildfire season. In Washington, roads began to crack and buckle, and bags of ice quickly sold out at stores around Seattle, where less than half of the population has any kind of air conditioning. While heatwaves are not new, they are becoming much more extreme due to this expanded warming trend.įragile infrastructure has shattered under the pressure. Global warming has pushed up the planet’s average temperature, which is about 1.2 degrees Celsius warmer now than in 1850. These conditions arise when the jet stream, a band of fast-moving air high in the atmosphere, develops a large wave pattern that keeps the dome locked in place. The blistering temperatures in the US and Canada this week were caused by an atmospheric high-pressure zone known as a heat dome. “How are we going to structure ourselves in our responses, given the intensity, the frequency and the sense of urgency that we’ve faced literally every few months over the past year?” As well as this week’s heat wave, she pointed to the February “snowpocalypse” and the wildfires last year that hugely polluted Portland’s air. Jennifer Vines, lead health officer for Oregon’s tri-county region, told the FT. “There is an emerging consensus that this is some kind of new normal,” Dr. The western US has especially suffered a gruesome combination of heat waves, droughts and wildfires in recent years, putting immense strain on its infrastructure. The increased frequency of such weather events raises whether such “once-in-a-millennium” events will become once a century, a decade, or even a year, and whether humanity is prepared for the consequences of global climate catastrophes. Death Valley, California reached a scorching 127.7 in June, a record high for that month. Other extreme recent deadly events have hit Australia, California and Siberia with deadly wildfires caused by extreme heat. “Had Sunrise not been there.” he trailed off. They were vomiting, burnt and dehydrated.” “Hundreds of people came through because we had water stations, misters and a shower truck,” as temperatures reached 116 degrees. The Sunrise Center, an emergency shelter in Portland, Oregon, set up for protection from the February winter storm that hit the Pacific Northwest this year, is now being used as a cooling shelter from the blistering heat.Ĭaleb Coder, who helped set up the emergency center told the Financial Times (FT), “People were literally crawling to the Sunrise Center because it was so hot. Many more deaths are expected as the heat wave across the Pacific Northwest continues and coroners complete their investigations into the surge in deaths. This includes at least 486 “sudden and unexpected” deaths between Saturday and Wednesday and another 60 fatalities in Oregon have been linked to the heat and more than a dozen in Washington. Such temperatures are unbearable for human life, as evinced by the hundreds of people who have so far died. On Monday, people were evacuated as several wildfires tore through the town. Īmong the highest temperatures reached was in the town of Lytton, British Columbia, which breached 121 degrees Fahrenheit. A farmworker wipes sweat from his neck while working, Thursday, July 1, 2021, in St.
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