Historic heatwave: More than 700 dead in Canada and 150 fires in progress

It’s a scene worthy of a movie about the end of the world. A water bomber tries to put out a fire in Shasta County, California. All residents of the area were evacuated. Some are surrounded by a wall of thick smoke, while others notice smoke from a distance on the road and cannot believe their eyes. 9,000 American firefighters have been deployed and there may be more if the situation worsens. Ditto in Canada, where the village of Lytton was evacuated Thursday as smoke swallowed it. Since then, the village has been completely destroyed.

As of Saturday morning, more than 150 fires were still burning. Experts estimate that this heat wave, which has triggered heatwave alerts in areas where millions of people live and killed nearly 700 people in Canada and at least 16 in the United States, was caused by global warming.

The heat wave continued on Saturday in the wilds of central Canada. In addition to British Columbia, heatwave warnings have been issued for the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, as well as part of the Northwest Territories, now northern Ontario. The US states of Washington and Oregon, across the border, were also choked this week by record temperatures.

“We must do everything we can to prepare for this new phenomenon. Global warming is causing higher temperatures and prolonged drought.” US President Joe Biden responded. These fires ravaging the West Coast of the United States are due in particular to the “thermal dome” – clouds of hot, heavy smoke, laden with electricity – whose temperatures are over 45 degrees Celsius.

A phenomenon that one unfortunately has to get used to, as meteorologist Christelle Robert explained in the TF1 report at the top of the article: “Temperature records have been broken, for several days in a row, it is an exceptional situation (…) Forecasts indicate that more frequent and intense heat waves should be expected.” The thermal dome is now moving away from the West Coast and is expected to hit eastern America in the coming days.