BY Chandrayee Roy Choudhury, Canada
After a summer of record-breaking temperatures and raging wildfires, Canadians should be prepared for more scorching heat waves in the years to come, experts have warned.
The extreme weather events — attributed to climate change — that the country saw this past summer should serve as a “warning sign” that urgent climate action is needed, said Kent Moore, professor of physics at the University of Toronto, Mississauga.
A “heat dome,” which is a high-pressure system that traps warm air underneath it, raised the mercury to unprecedented levels in Canada, shattering more than 100 heat records across British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon and Northwest Territories this year.
Looking at the summer surface temperature trends, Peter Carter, an expert reviewer for the IPCC, is concerned that Canada like the rest of the world is headed for “hellishly hot summers.”