Canada: Record heat claims human lives – DER SPIEGEL

Canada is experiencing a heat wave this summer with unprecedented temperatures. According to police, extreme conditions have contributed to the deaths. According to the national police agency RCMP, at least 69 people died in the city of Vancouver alone, including many elderly people with previous illnesses. It added that heat is seen as a contributing cause in most cases.

The police called on the population to pay special attention to risk groups. “It’s important that we take care of each other in this scorching heat,” Vancouver area police spokesman Mike Kalanj said in a statement. Several air-conditioned centers have been set up in the west coast metropolis where people can take shelter from the heat.

The local weather authority said that a temperature of 49.5 degrees was measured in Lytton, Canada (province of British Columbia) on Tuesday. It was the highest temperature in the country’s history. It surpassed Monday’s record (47.9 degrees).

The values ​​are provisional and can still be updated, it said on the website of the responsible authority. Whereas in Midale (Saskatchewan), the record of 45 degrees since 1937 was already broken on Sunday with 46.6 degrees.

In many places in North America, including the state of Oregon in the western United States, record local temperatures exceeded 40 degrees Celsius.

With heat comes the danger of fire

The Department of the Environment issued a warning for the provinces of British Columbia and Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories due to extreme heat. The heat will last all week, it said. The temperature will be 10 to 15 degrees above normal.

The US National Weather Service issued a similar warning of a “dangerous heat wave” for the northwestern states of Washington and Oregon.

The heat also increases the risk of forest fires. Especially summer storms, in which there is no significant amount of rain, can lead to new fires. There are already fires in many states.