For the first time, the Canadian government has conducted a rapid analysis of extreme heat and determined its connection to human-caused climate change.A construction worker eats a popsicle to keep cool on a worksite in downtown Montreal on June 18. Environment Canada issued a heat warning that day for the remainder of the week, forecasting temperatures of 30 to 35 C, but feeling closer to 40 to 45 with the humidex.
Flato said the heat wave ongoing in Western Canada will also be analyzed, as will others in the future. The department will expand this system to analyze other extreme weather events, he said. An ECCC official said their rapid attribution system is based on peer-reviewed techniques.
Otto said other countries have done attribution studies but Canada appears to be the first to commit to doing so on an ongoing basis. "If you know that the heat wave that you're experiencing right now is not an act of God or just bad luck with nature, but that it is actually something … you actually expect to see every 10 years or so, that means you have to have infrastructure that can deal with these levels of heat," Otto said.