The heat wave that has hit western Canada since last Friday has caused dozens of deaths, according to the country’s authorities.
In particular, in the metropolitan area of Vancouver They have registered 65 sudden deaths in the last four days, informed the spokesman of the Police of the city, Steve Addison. By comparison, this number is typically three or four a day.
“Vancouver has never experienced heat like this and sadly dozens of people are dying from it,” said Addison, aforementioned by CBC. In addition, he added that the police reassign the agents of the investigation division to respond to this crisis.
Dozens of similar cases are also reported in nearby cities. Meanwhile in Burnaby if you know of 25 sudden deaths since Monday, in Burnaby They registered 20 Monday and 18 mid-morning on Tuesday.
For its part, the British Columbia Forensic Service indicates that since Friday it has counted 233 deaths in the territory of the province. The figure represents an increase of more than 100, since normally in a period of four days 130 deaths are registered.
“Coroners are carefully compiling all the information available for each reported death, to determine the cause and manner of death, and whether excessive heat played a role,” said the chief of the service, Lisa Lapointe.
Record heat wave
The heat wave, which also covered the Northwest, has caused temperatures to rise 10-15 degrees higher than normal at this time of year. In particular, it has caused the city of Lytton, in British Columbia, beat for the third day in a row the record for the highest temperature ever observed in Canada. This Tuesday, the 49.5 degree centigrade.
Alerts were previously issued, in addition to British Columbia, for the province of Alberta and parts of Saskatchewan, Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
For its part, the US National Weather Service also issued a similar warning of a “dangerous heat wave” that could cause temperatures to rise above normal in parts of Washington and Oregon.
Western Canada and the US Pacific Northwest are not the only regions of the world experiencing unusually high temperatures. The Russian capital Moscow is also experiencing a heat wave, breaking the daily temperature record set in 1917 last week.
