Extreme Heatwave in Canada | 50°C Temperature | Climate Change | Sohail khan

 Canada is considered to be one of the oldest countries in the world.

Temperature falling as low as -20°C or -30°C is 'normal' there. But for the past few days, there has been such an awful heatwave in Canada, that in some areas of Canada, the temperature reached 49.6°C. Almost 50°C

You'd normally expect 50°C temperature in Dubai or some Middle Eastern country,

but now it can be seen even in countries like Canada. How is it possible?

Come let's try to find out in today's article

Let's talk specifically of the place where the previous record temperature was smashed. There is a State in Canada, British Columbia. It's in southwest Canada. In this State, there is a village named Lytton.

If you'll see the latitude of this village, It lies on the 50°N Latitude.

Approximately the same latitude as London. The distance between the equator and London, the UK in the North, is the same as the distance Lytton village is North of the equator. It is important to know this fact because the farther you go from the equator towards north, the colder it gets. Most of the homes in this village do not have air conditioners. Because the climate of this area is described as Mild Climate.

On this graph, it is shown

the maximum, minimum, and average temperature that one might expect in this village. In July and August, the maximum temperature that can be expected on average is around 28°C. Though when summer arrives in this place it has been seen several times that the temperature had exceeded 40°C. But in winter, it can be as low as -5°C or -10°C. The record minimum temperate here is at -31°C.

So a village in Canada has beaten even this. The heat was so intense, that power cables melted. The roads cracked in the heat. Because most of the people didn't have air conditioning in their homes, people went to public places with air conditioning to take shelter from the heat. Some people slept in their cars throughout the night with the AC turned on. But this was only for a few days. After this, because of this heatwave, the nearby forest caught fire. A wildfire encroached on this village. And this wildfire burned down 90% of the village. Burned to ashes. 90% of the village has been completely destroyed.

You can see some photos here.

Experts say that the root cause behind this extreme weather event is Climate Change.

But in technical terms, it happened because of a Heat Dome. We're talking technically here. The hot air normally rises upwards. There was a situation of high pressure in the atmosphere. That high pressure pushed down the hot air back towards the surface. And because this hot air is pushed down, it becomes denser by getting compressed and becomes even hotter. When you'll try to read about it from several sources, some of them will blame only the Heat Dome. But the truth remains, that because of Climate Change, such extreme weather events, become more frequent. Meaning that they occur more and become more extreme. They become more intense. Often people have this misunderstanding about Global Warming that because of global warming, there will be more heat. But we cannot conclude with this always. Because due to climate change, there is an increase in extreme weather events. It means that summers will become hotter. And winters may become colder. And unexpected weather events and natural disasters will become more frequent and more severe.

Michael Mann is a Professor of Atmospheric Science.

He says that the frequency of the heat waves has tripled now as compared to the 1960s. And the record-breaking hot months that we get to see, their frequency has gone up to five times. As compared to a scenario without Climate Change.

In the famous 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, that was signed by almost 200 countries,

these countries had pledged that the temperature in the pre-industrial era, that is the time between 1850-1900, compared to then, the countries would ensure that the global average temperature would not rise by more than 2°C. It would preferably be maintained at an increase of 1.5°C. The more the average temperature of the Earth increases, he more we'll get to see these extreme weather events. With every increase of 1°C,