Fourth Major Heatwave in Five Weeks Building in the Rockies

 


If this summer is doing anything it's in demonstrating that the climate emergency is here. Now. It's here now. Extreme heat, extreme drought, fires so intense they create their own thunderstorms that start new fires. Forests that cannot adapt to this new, angry climate. Clouds of dangerous wildfire smoke that blanket our country from west to east.

There's a new heatwave building, the fourth in five weeks. As the graphic shows it is building in the Rockies and is expected to hammer southeastern BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.  Regina is already under a heat warning and temperatures are expected to hit the upper 30s by the weekend. Calgary should be a few degrees cooler but it's also under a heat advisory and an air quality warning.

The good news is that we're unlikely to see any new national heat records. Lytton has that honour, for now. From the Washington Post:


The heat wave is forecast to bring triple-digit temperatures to at least 16 million people, challenging and breaking records into Canada. It’s also targeting an area where numerous wildfires have flared up and a smoky haze fills the skies. The arrival of even hotter, drier conditions could compound the situation.

The blast of heat is set to arrive just days after Las Vegas soared to a record-tying 117 degrees amid historically high temperatures from the Southwest into California’s Central Valley. Two weeks ago, a 1,000-year heat event brought unprecedented temperatures to the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia, producing highs of 108 degrees in Seattle, 116 in Portland and 121 in Lytton, Canada — a new Canadian record.

By Monday, a key heat dome threshold could be reached — 600 dekameters — signifying a rare event, but one that has grown more common because of human-caused climate change. The threshold corresponds to the altitude that the lower atmosphere’s “halfway point” swells to vertically. The hotter the air, the more a column of atmosphere expands, and the higher that halfway level climbs. At 600 dekameters, or nearly 20,000 feet, that’s nearly two football fields higher than average.

At that point, the heat dome should be anchored over the central Rockies, dominating over most of the western United States and bringing hot and hazy conditions to parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba — some of the same areas roasted in the late June heat wave.

Four major heatwaves in five weeks and we're just halfway through July.

A heat dome is just what the farmers of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba don't need.  They're already reeling from the combined impact of drought and an infestation of grasshoppers that are savaging both crops and pasture.

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