Heatwave likely contributed to 719 sudden deaths in British Columbia this week – Temp records fall across Alberta and Saskatchewan – “We haven’t experienced anything like this in the province previously”
By Brittany Roffel
2 July 2021
(CBC News) – The BC Coroners Service has reported 719 sudden deaths in the past week, triple the number that would normally occur in the province.
“We are releasing this information as it is believed likely the extreme weather B.C. has experienced in the past week is a significant contributing factor to the increased number of deaths,” Lisa Lapointe, chief coroner said in a release.
This comes after a dangerous and unrelenting heat wave crushed temperature records across the province.
Earlier this week, police in Metro Vancouver said they experienced a spike in calls related to sudden deaths under the oppressive heat.
Lapointe says the coroners service received an unprecedented number of reports of sudden and unexpected deaths throughout the province from last Friday to Thursday.
She says B.C. had seen only three heat-related deaths in the past three to five years before the heat wave.
“Many of our health services, our first responders, we haven’t experienced anything like this in the province previously. It took a bit of time for us to ramp up our response. There were some delays in reaching the coroner and there were some delays in responding to scenes,” Lapointe said in a briefing earlier this week. […]
She says many of the deaths reported over the past week were among older individuals living alone in private residences. [more]
B.C.’s heat wave likely contributed to 719 sudden deaths this week, coroner reports
35 Sask. communities broke daily temperature records Friday – Some records were set as far back as 1886
By Alexander Quon
3 July 2021
(CBC News) – Meteorologists say 35 communities throughout Saskatchewan broke daily maximum temperature records on Friday amidst a continuing heatwave throughout Western Canada.
The prolonged event is known as a “heat dome,” where ridges of high pressure hovering over an area create an effect similar to a pressure cooker.
Saskatchewan is expected to see one more day of dangerous heat and large stretches of the province remain under a heat warning on Saturday, according to Environment Canada.
The following areas broke temperature records on 2 July 2021, according to the weather agency:
- Broadview area: 33 C.
- Buffalo Narrows area: 35.8 C.
- Collins Bay area: 34.9 C.
- Coronach area: 35.6 C.
- Cypress Hills Park: 33.9 C.
- Eastend area: 35.9 C.
- Elbow area: 39 C.
- Key Lake area: 36.5 C.
- Hudson Bay area: 34.7 C.
- La Ronge area: 36.7 C.
- Last Mountain Lake area: 36.5 C.
- Leader area: 39.4 C.
- Lloydminister area: 30.8 C.
- Lucky Lake area: 40 C.
- Maple Creek area: 38.3 C.
- Meadow Lake area: 36.1 C.
- Melfort area: 35.6 C.
- Nipawin area: 35.2 C.
- North Battleford area: 38.3 C.
- Prince Albert area: 36.2 C.
- Regina area: 35.3 C.
- Rockglen area: 34.9 C.
- Rosetown area: 39.8 C.
- Saskatoon area: 40 C.
- Scott area: 35.9 C.
- Southend Reindeer area: 35.9 C.
- Spiritwood area: 35.9 C.
- Stony Rapids area: 38.2 C.
- Swift Current area: 37.8 C.
- Uranium City area: 33.9 C.
- Waskesiu Lake area: 35.3 C.
- Watrous area: 35.9 C.
- Weyburn area: 35.6 C.
- Wynyard area: 35.9 C.
- Yorkton area: 34.7 C.
The new record in the Regina area of 35.3 C breaks an old record that was set on July 2 in 1886.
The record on that date was 33.9 C. [more]
