This article was written by the Associated Press and was published in the Toronto Star on July 8, 2023.
Earth’s average temperature set a new unofficial record high on Thursday, the third such milestone in a week that already rated as the hottest on record.
The number — 17.23 C — doesn’t look that hot because it averages temperatures from around the globe.
Thursday’s planetary average surpassed the 17.18 C mark set Tuesday and equalled Wednesday, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on Thursday issued a note of caution about the Maine tool’s findings, saying it could not confirm data that results in part from computer modelling.
The new unofficial record of 17.23 C doesn’t look that hot because it averages temperatures from around the globe
This article was written by Steve McKinley and was published in the Toronto Star on July 7, 2023.
Prevention agent Mélanie Morin of Quebec’s Society of Protection of Forests from Fire walks through an area of burned forest in the area surrounding Lebel-surQuevillon on Wednesday.
An extraordinary wildfire season has created a record-breaking number of evacuees across Canada, federal officials said during a briefing on the national wildfire situation Thursday.
And with wildfire season increasing in length and severity — thanks in part to climate change — that situation will only become more dire as the year goes on.
The unprecedented scale of this season’s fires — driven largely by high temperatures and droughtlike conditions in many areas — has prompted an estimated 155,856 Canadians across the country to flee their homes, as a result of 132 evacuation orders.
That’s about 1.5 times more evacuees than in 2016, when the Fort McMurray fire represented the previous high over the past 40 years. Of those who have evacuated this year, more than 4,500 are still under evacuation orders; 3,400 of those are from First Nations communities.
And Natural Resources Canada officials are predicting the fire situation will be getting worse before it gets better.
“It’s no understatement to say that the 2023 fire season is and will continue to be record-breaking in a number of ways,” said Michael Norton, director general of the Northern Forestry Centre, Canadian Forest Service.
He said that in addition to the record number of evacuees, the total area burned by wildfires so far this year exceeds the previous total for any entire season since Natural Resources started keeping records. And those fires are being fought with the aid of more international firefighters from more countries than Canada has previously seen.
“And we are only approximately halfway through the fire season,” Norton said.
Meteorologists and fire researchers are predicting a tough summer ahead.
“What we’re seeing in the West is an ongoing drought from 2022, which tended to intensify during the latter part of the summer in 2022,” said CFS fire research analyst Richard Carr. “And that carried on through the winter in a lot of areas and then it spread eastwards over 2023.”
“Right now, we’ve got various drought levels stretching right from coast to coast. There’s some drought in pretty much every province and territory in the country at the moment — the most intense areas are in central British Columbia, and southern Alberta.”
Those drought conditions will combine with projections for “some very extreme or anomalous heat” in B.C., Yukon, N.W.T. and the western parts of Nunavut as well as portions of Quebec, said Environment Canada warning preparedness meteorologist Armel Castellan.
With more of the same hot and dry weather predicted in store for most of the country, Natural Resources is projecting increased wildfire risk in July from B.C. and the Yukon across the country to western Labrador. In August, that area of increased risk will decrease slightly but the areas of greatest risk will still stretch from B.C. to western Quebec.
On June 27, with three months left in the wildfire season, Canada surpassed its historic record for total area burned by wildfires. That previous seasonal mark was set in 1989, when 7.6 million hectares were burned.
As of Wednesday, 8.8 million hectares have been scorched this year, nearly 11 times the 10-year average for this time of year, Norton said. Also by Wednesday, 3,412 fires had been recorded across Canada; 639 of those are active, with 351 of those deemed “out of control.”
Soaring temperatures have us sweltering from coast to coast
This article was written by Seth Borenstein and Isabella O’Malley, and was published in the Toronto Star on July 7, 2023.
Sweltering heat is blanketing much of the planet, and the past seven days have been the hottest week on record, the latest grim milestone in a series of climate-change-driven extremes.
Earth’s average temperature on Wednesday remained at an unofficial record high set the day before. And for the seven-day period ending Wednesday, the daily average temperature was .04 degrees Celsius higher than any week in 44 years of record-keeping, according to data from the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition.
The average global temperature for Tuesday and Wednesday was 17.18 C. That follows a short-lived record set Monday of 17.01 C.
The Climate Reanalyzer figures are unofficial but significant data, and an indication that climate change is reaching uncharted territory.
“The situation we are witnessing now is the demonstration that climate change is out of control,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said.
“If we persist in delaying key measures that are needed, I think we are moving into a catastrophic situation, as the last two records in temperature demonstrates.”
More frequent and more intense heat waves are disrupting life around the world and causing life threatening temperatures.
Overall, one of the largest contributors to this week’s heat records is an exceptionally mild winter in the Antarctic. Parts of the continent and nearby ocean were 10 to 20 C higher than averages from 1979 to 2000.
“Temperatures have been unusual over the ocean and especially around the Antarctic this week, because wind fronts over the Southern Ocean are strong pushing warm air deeper south,” said Raghu Murtugudde, a professor of atmospheric, oceanic and earth system science at the University of Maryland.
Katharine Hayhoe, the Nature Conservancy’s chief scientist, said: “This is one more reminder of the inexorable upward trend that will only be halted by decisive actions to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, invest in nature, and achieve net zero.”
“The situation we are witnessing now is the demonstration that climate change is out of control. ANTÓNIO GUTERRES UN SECRETARYGENERAL
This article was written by Lindsay Jones and was published in the Globe & Mail on July 7, 2023.
Wildfires stoked by drought and scorching temperatures are expected to pose a danger for the rest of the summer, after an early season in which a record-breaking amount of land has already burned, forcing more than 155,000 people to evacuate their homes and necessitating historic levels of international support.
Government officials made the forecast Thursday, as Canadians across the country sweltered under a bout of intense heat and weather warnings.
“This is going to be a long, tough summer,” Michael Norton, director general of the federal Canadian Forest Service’s Northern Forestry Centre, said at a news conference.
“It is anticipated that many parts of Canada will continue to see above-normal fire activity,” he added, noting that Atlantic Canada is at slightly less risk.
As of July 5, wildfires had burned 8.8 million hectares in Canada. That is 11 times the 10-year average for this point in the summer.
The country blew past the record for total area burned by wildfires in a single season on June 27. And the hottest months are still to come.
The amount of area burned isn’t the only measure by which this wildfire season is exceptional. The number of fires is up 20 per cent over the 10-year historical average. That figure is expected to rise, Mr. Norton said.
And the number of people evacuated from their homes because of wildfires – more than 155,000 – is the highest in any year in the past four decades. Currently, there are still more than 4,500 evacuees across Canada, more than two-thirds of them from First Nations.
Most of the country faced sweltering temperatures Thursday, with southern parts of Ontario and Quebec enduring the third day of a heat wave that has made the air feel as though it is 40 degrees, when humidity is factored in. Heat warnings are also in effect in British Columbia and parts of the Northwest Territories. The Atlantic region is experiencing hot, sticky weather that is expected to stretch into the weekend.
Inuvik, south of the Beaufort Sea in the Northwest Territories, remained under a heat warning after the temperature there hit 33 degrees on Tuesday. This was a local daily temperature record, according to Environment Canada records dating back to 1957.
Wildfires have raged simultaneously in Eastern, Western and Central Canada this spring and summer, which Mr. Norton described as very unusual. While wildfires that swept through Nova Scotia last month are now considered contained, as of Thursday there were 143 blazes still burning in Quebec, 100 in B.C. and 109 in Alberta, with dozens considered out of control.
Smoke from the wildfires has, at times, blanketed large areas, prompting air quality warnings in most of Canada’s biggest cities, including Montreal and Toronto, as well as the eastern and central United States. Wildfire smoke is a major source of pollution and can travel long distances and affect large populations, depending on the prevailing winds, according to Marie-Ève Héroux, manager of air quality assessment for Health Canada, who also spoke at Thursday’s news conference.
Wildfire smoke – a mixture of gases, particles and water vapour – can cause mild to serious symptoms, such as irritation, chest pains, coughs and shortness of breath, she added.
“It’s really the fine particles, the ones that are very small and not visible to the human eye that get deep into our lungs and bloodstream – those are the ones we’re most concerned with in terms of health risk,” Ms. Héroux told reporters. “When we breathe in wildfire smoke and these small particles, what we can see is effects related to the respiratory system.”
People who already have heart and lung conditions are particularly at risk from exposure to wildfire smoke, but Ms. Héroux said everyone’s health is at risk, especially when concentrations of pollutants are high for a considerable length of time.
About 3,800 provincial and territorial firefighters are working right now to extinguish wildfires around the country. The Canadian Armed Forces are assisting, along with firefighters from 11 foreign countries, including recent arrivals from South Korea. Work is continuing to identify other possible partners, Mr. Norton said, and memorandums of understanding were signed with the United States and Portugal last month.
Despite the widespread burning, the federal government says it has the capacity to deal with the problem. “We continue to have sufficient resources to fight fires,” Mr. Norton said, adding that the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre is in constant communication with international partners to sustain the country’s firefighting ability until the end of wildfire season.
It’s unclear how much wildfires will cost Canadians this year, but Mr. Norton said the cost of fire suppression is close to $1-billion annually. This year’s expenses will no doubt surpass that and hit a new record, he added. The total economic burden, factoring in effects on forestry, mining, energy production, transportation, infrastructure and public health, is also unknown and will be much higher than usual, he said.
Officials cited El Niño, a climate phenomenon that can create dry conditions in Northern Canada, as a factor in the increased risk of wildfires.
Earth’s average temperature remained at a record high Wednesday, after two days in which the planet reached unofficial records. It’s the latest marker in a series of climate-change-driven extremes.
With 2023 officially the worst wildfire season in Canadian history, the federal government is warning that the fire risk will remain very high across the country for the rest of the summer.
Sweltering heat is blanketing much of the planet, and one unofficial analysis says the past seven days have been the hottest week on record, the latest grim milestone in a series of climate-change-driven extremes.
Mobilize, Canada! 