Trapped by ‘heat dome’, US, Canada bakes under record-smashing hot weather | India News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Much of the American West has been blasted with sweltering heat this week with temperatures into triple digits, toppling records even before the official start of summer.
Temperatures in the US Pacific Northwest cities of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington reached levels not seen since record-keeping began in the 1940s: 115 degrees in Portland and 108 in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service.
Lytton in British Columbia broke the record for Canada’s all-time high Monday, with a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.9 degrees Celsius), just one day after the village set the previous record at 116 degrees.

The scorching heat has been blamed on a high-pressure ridge trapping warm air in the region. The heat dome poses “serious” health concerns as the last major heatwave in Canada left nearly 70 people dead in 2018.
The extreme heat, combined with intense drought, created the perfect conditions for several fires to break out over the weekend, and one blaze on the California-Oregon border had already burned some 600 hectares (1,500 acres) by Monday morning.
In Canada, stores sold out of portable air conditioners and fans, while cities opened emergency cooling centres. Several Covid-19 vaccination clinics were cancelled and schools have been closed.
Environment Canada issued alerts for British Columbia, Alberta, and parts of Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Yukon and the Northwest Territories, saying the “prolonged, dangerous and historic heatwave will persist through this week.”
Is climate change responsible for heat dome?
Climate change is causing record-setting temperatures to become more frequent. Globally, the decade to 2019 was the hottest recorded, and the five hottest years have all occurred within the last five years.
Nick Bond, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Washington, said the freak weather event was not entirely due to climate change but was exacerbated by it. “Climate change is a factor here, but definitely a secondary one,” he said.
(With inputs from agencies)