One of the categories in the table is titled “Province or Territory,” but four Canadian jurisdictions are missing from social media posts: NunavutYukon, Northwest Territories and British Columbia.
Simon Donnerprofessor and climate scientist at the University of British Columbia (archived here), said these omissions are significant because they ignore all provincial and territorial temperature records measured in the 21st century, including the Canadian winger of all time of 49.6C (121.2F) set at Lytton, British Columbia on June 29, 2021.
“It’s just a selective selection of data that is not actually the most extreme temperatures recorded in Canada,” Donner said on July 3, 2024.
Heat Dome 2021
As of June 2021, North America with experience a stagnant bubble of warm air that set temperature records in the western US and Canada. Donner said British Columbia’s omission not only excluded the national record set in Lytton, but also ignored the other cases of extreme heat in the province that summer.
“This leaves out the 2021 heat wave that killed hundreds of Canadians,” he said.
Local reports said health officials I estimated About 600 people died in Canada as a result of the extreme temperatures that June. The day after the national heat record was set in Lytton, the British Columbia village was almost completely destroyed by a nearby forest fire.
Although misleading social media posts claim that warnings about recent extremes are overreactions, researchers are predicting that heat domes like the one experienced in 2021 will become more intense because of of Climate Change (filed here).
There is one almost universal consensus that the burning of fossil fuels is causing the global average temperature to rise (archived here). Donner said historically colder regions are warming faster than other parts of the world and the lack of contrast between temperatures slows down the movement of weather patterns, allowing heat domes to establish and intensify over a longer period (archived here).
Mélodie LONTJENSSabrina BLANCHARDAFP
“We are seeing more of these blocking events and slower air movement in the upper atmosphere,” Donner said. “And that follows from what you would expect from the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.”
During a June 2024 heat dome seen off the east coast of North America, AFP unmasked separate allegations that predictions about extreme temperatures were being exaggerated.
What’s in the data?
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) keeps climate measurements dating back to the 19th century in the country and shared its highest provincial and territorial temperature records with AFP on July 2.
According to ECCC data, two more records were set in the 21st century that the social media graph leaves out: 36.5C (97.7F) in Yukon in 2004 and 39.9C (103.82F) in Northwest Territoriesalso during the June 2021 heat dome (archived here It is here). The ECCC said its highest recorded temperature for Nunavut was 34.9 C (94.82 F) in 1989, before the region separate of the Northwest Territories (archived here It is here).
In addition to the provinces and territories left off the social media chart, the ECCC data measured higher and later records than those claimed in publications for alberta, Ontario It is Quebec (filed here, here It is here).
For Newfoundland and Labrador, the ECCC provided a record-tying 37.8°C (100.4°F), measured twice in 1944 It is 1953 (filed here It is here). Although a reading in that province of 38.3 C (100.9 F) on July 6, 1921, as seen in social media posts, did not exist in government agency historical data (archived here), ECCC spokesperson Hannah Boonstra said it was not included in its list of provincial and territorial records because the measurement needed to be validated.
“It is possible that the value will be considered valid; however, it has been excluded from the table provided until its validity is confirmed at a future date,” said Boonstra.
The CECC it says online that some historical readings may be wrong, and Boonstra explained that daily maximum temperature values are compared with hourly temperatures and measurements from neighboring stations to assess whether a value is suspect (archived here).
Canada warming faster
One 2019 to study of the Government of Canada reported that the country is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world (archived here). Travis MooreThe investigator in climate and atmospheric sciences and extreme weather at Concordia University (archived here), also said that Canada’s highest annual average temperatures were recorded during the last two decades (archived here).
Moore said that as temperatures rise, colder regions will feel the effects more quickly, and that the omissions from social media posts about Canada’s far northern territories were striking to him.
“O North has some very, very impressive records as well,” he said.
Canada’s Arctic regions are warming even faster than the rest of the country. A 2022 Finnish study (archived here) found that melting sea ice is providing less surface area to reflect solar radiation and northern regions are absorbing more heat, creating a positive warming feedback loop.
Moore stressed thatEven with Canada and the North warming faster, all these rates are being calculated from global averages – with 2023 being the hottest year ever. record.
Read more AFP reports on disinformation around climate change and the environment here.
