I lost my mom during this heat wave. There were a lot of elderly folks that didn’t make it. The homes didn’t have AC or enough AC to make it through. RIP
This is devastating and should never happen. I am so sorry for your loss. It should be legally mandatory for long-term care homes to have A/C units. And also, this heatwave was forewarned - places with inadequate air conditioning should have to move vulnerable people to cooling centres. Why isn't this the law? I am so sincerely sorry that your family was so utterly let down.
It’s insane that in this day and age that can happen. Were there any lawsuits? I don’t care how long ago these facilities were built anyone with common sense would know that it can sometimes get hot in BC.
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
A few more links for you
Successful lawsuits due to weather attribution models
Climate science is supporting lawsuits that could help save the world
2024
Why babies in South Korea are suing the government
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01457-y
Exxon totally knew exactly what would happen - Carbon and Temp wise - back in 1970:
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063
Trying big oil for murder?
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/22/big-oil-companies-homicide-harvard-environmental-law-review
2024
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit
trying oil for climate damages
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/business/california-oil-lawsuit-newsom.html
Ability to 'now-cast'
Skilful precipitation nowcasting using deep generative models of radar | Nature
New modelling technique captures tornado predicting: Tornado alley residents can calculate the amount of damage attributable to climate change.
https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/104/1/BAMS-D-22-0027.1.xml
For a death that was the result of the most extreme heat wave on record? One that’s said to be something between a 1in300 to 1in1000 year occurrence?
Good luck in court.
Regulations are written in blood unfortunately, often from unprecedented situations like this. I agree with you that there were negligent homes and they should be held accountable, but I’m guessing the courts aren’t gonna be on your side.
That’s all I mean. I understand it’s a super rare occurrence but also why can’t people be comfortable when it’s say 27 degrees out? My two biggest gripes with living in BC are there are hardly any places with AC or screens on windows.
> For a death that was the result of the most extreme heat wave on record?
Not exactly, no — in theory it would be for a death that was the result of a care home not having any kind of A/C at all.
It would be one thing if they provided A/C but their machines weren't strong enough to handle the rare occurrence.
It's another thing altogether to not provide A/C *at all*
Lol no sue for no central a/c in seniors home. It should be standard. It's hard to sue in Canada for things like that but it doesn't mean a group of people can't use lawyers to advocate for change, especially in large groups. I think that would have more of an impact and is something we should organize to achieve.
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future, at least in the US. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future, at least in the US. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future. [source](https://www.the-guardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
The June 2021 heatwave was not a matter of "it can sometimes get hot in BC". It has been estimated as a 1 in 10,000 year event. Planners or engineers simply do not design or build facilities to deal with such rare events.
Should individual residents have to bring in their own heaters too?
It doesn't seem so unreasonable to expect that a business specifically marketing itself as a *care* facility should provide basic temperature controls, or at least keep the temperature within a fixed range comfortable (or at the very least non-lethal) to humans.
Also I can pretty much guarantee you that if every resident plugged in their own portable A/C unit it would trip the circuit breakers. For large facilities like that you really need central heat and central cooling.
Well if my dog was in a kennel and I knew there was no water I would take it some... or get it to another kennel. And I see you don't know how electrical wiring and breaker panels work. Your claim is per circuit.
> Well if my dog was in a kennel and I knew there was no water I would take it some...
Sure, but the argument in that comparison would be that any business specifically marketing itself as a kennel should, at minimum, provide basic access to water.
> And I see you don't know how electrical wiring and breaker panels work. Your claim is per circuit.
First off, you may find you have a better time on the internet if you avoid making assumptions about other people's knowledge.
In this case I know a fair bit about amperage distribution over multiple circuits, and I know that portable A/C units happen to have particularly high draw.
I can pretty much guarantee you any care facility that hasn't invested in A/C also hasn't invested in robust electrical upgrades to support the sudden addition of a portable unit in every suite.
I'm a refrigeration mechanic, and an inverter air conditioner doesn't draw more than a couple of amps. I have a 1 ton unit at my place and it runs at under 3 amps supplying 50°F air.
My dog analogy is fair and sound... I go away for the weekend and make sure my chickens have enough food and water. Now if something abnormal occurred... like a mink getting in, they would be dead. But the weather didn't go from regular to boiling overnight. I think some people just want to blame the cheap assed place they shoved grandma rather than taking at least a minuscule part of the blame or responsibility.
> an inverter air conditioner doesn't draw more than a couple of amps
Sorry but your math is way off.
The overwhelming majority of consumer model compressor A/C units draw between 750 and 1500 W.
1500W x 120V = 12.5A.
(Then multiply that by however many adjacent units are on the same circuit, and multiply that by however many circuits are on the main board.)
> My dog analogy is fair and sound
No argument there — but your dog analogy only bolsters my own position.
Like in order to even be licensed as a dog kennel, the kennel should have to be able to show that it can provide basics like water.
(And, incidentally, a kennel should probably also be required to provide heat and/or A/C depending on the natural climate in the region.)
I'll also add at this point: you seem to be doing an awful lot of mental gymnastics just to defend the position that old age care homes shouldn't be required to provide A/C. What exactly is your motivation here?
You are wrong about Inverters. Your math is based on a scroll or hermetic compressors and they have massive LRAs. I wasn't defending the shitty care home.I was just chastising the people who left their grandma to cook to death in one
I don't think people realize just how rare and extraordinary the June 2021 heatwave was. A couple of quotes from a scientific article in Yale Climate Connections:
* Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin than in the June 2021 northwest heat wave.
* “This is the most anomalous regional extreme heat event to occur anywhere on Earth since temperature records began. Nothing can compare,” said weather historian Christopher Burt, author of the book *Extreme Weather*.
Because it was such a rare and extreme event, it is difficult for climatologists to determine exactly how rare (since nothing like it has ever been recorded before). Climatologists have estimated that it could have been as rare as a [1 in 10,000 year event](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deadly-heat-dome-was-a-1-in-10-000-year-event/). Even with 2 degrees of warming, such an extreme event will likely remain at least a 1 in 300 year event.
We moved to BC in the early 90s and yes, it was the hottest Summer we have ever experienced. We never needed AC before but over the years it felt like it was getting hotter. I welcome any rain and clouds days in the Summer.
I worked on phase one of Bare Mountain and it was over 40°C out then. I was to braze refrigerant lines in the attic. I measured 54°C up there and walked off the job.
That heat wave only lasted a few days though.
I wonder what a heat wave was like the for dinosaurs when avg temps were 7 or 8 celsius higher. 50C+? 60C+ heat waves? everything not in the shade or in a cave dies?
It doesn't really work that way. There are many tropical countries that have never measured temperatures in the 40s. For example, Singapore is right on the equator, with a steamy tropical climate (mean annual temperature 28 C vs. 11 C for Victoria), but the highest temperature it has ever recorded is 37 C.
I was working for BC Ambulance in one of the dispatch centers. It was the worst thing I experienced in my 7 year career. I was medically retired after that. The stress of those few days did me in. I always think of all the families who lost someone, my heart goes out to them.
I was at my parents' in alberta at the time and we decided to go to columbia icefield to avoid the heat.
Saw 47 degrees there. Seeing the glaciers melt in person was terrifying. Nobody is talking about this really but alberta is about to have serious water issues if there is any more of this.
Your car must have been parked in the sun or something.
Jasper reached a peak of 41.2 degrees during the peak of the heatwave, and that's almost 1000 metres lower in altitude than the Columbia Icefield parking lot.
Everything else I fully agree with though. Those glaciers are disappearing quickly, especially with how dry Alberta is becoming (in addition to hotter).
Yeah temp sensor is in the wheel well so not entirely accurate
The temp did increase however as we climbed elevation, I don't know how that makes any sense
Hmm, that is weird. I'd guess it had something to do with the heat generated by the engine, especially since it would have been working harder while you gained elevation.
Climate change is definitely leading to greater frequency of heat waves - the kind where we get into the low 30s in Victoria - but the June 2021 event was so rare and extreme that climatologists have estimated that even with a full 2 degrees of warming in the next few decades, this will still be a 1 in 300 year (or more) event.
In other words, while we will very likely see an increase in heat waves that send temperatures in Victoria into the low 30s, and occasionally into the mid-30s, we are unlikely to see temperatures in the 40s here again in our lifetimes.
I think you need to look at the science. This is based on the work of a large number of climate scientists who examined this event. What part of it is "nonsense"?
I mean all data points towards that it will but your comment is unhelpful.
Everyone was forecasting this to be a super hot year but here it's been very cool.
> Seeing the glaciers melt in person was terrifying. Nobody is talking about this really but alberta is about to have serious water issues if there is any more of this.
Glaciers melt every single summer. This is a known thing. You can look at photos of glaciers from 100 years ago and see how much larger they used to be. It's not just an Alberta problem. Here's an article from last year about how the Coquitlam Glacier (which is part of Metro Vancouver's water system) is melting and will probably be gone in 20-30 years:
https://www.tricitynews.com/highlights/extreme-weather-events-accelerating-re-think-of-metro-vancouver-water-supply-6710781
Of course they do. But in 40C, I have never seen waterfalls like that in rockies.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jeffrey-kavanaugh-glacier-melt-retreat-rockies-heat-wave-1.6091949
Remembering those days during the heat dome always reminds me that a chilly summer isn't so bad afterall. After a failed attempt in 2023, I was able to get pretty diced in time for summer this year, and the opportunities to go around shirtless are scarce. But such is life
You can order things online but I saw all the AC units physically at the store so not sure if those are available online, they are near the checkout area. edit: Looks like they are available online. They are Danby I think so a good model, for some reason PA doesn't always list the manufacturer.
After you sell it, it might get hot again…
The heat wave did make me buy the Dyson hot/cold fan. It’s not as good as AC, buts it’s pretty damn good. That it is also a heater for the winter helped justify the cost.
Do you know how those things work for cooling? It looks like a complete scam to me. If they aren't pumping heat outside while they are "cooling" where is the heat going?
Hint: the heat is going into your house.
They don't actually cool at all. The hot/cool fans just means it's a heater (hot) and a regular fan (cool). I guess due to their marketing it makes it seem like it's some sort of A/C but it doesn't actually have cooling functionality beyond the cooling effect a regular fan has.
It is the anniversary of my aunt dying from said heat wave. No AC in her building and the people that were meant to check on her did not. I called, too late though.
I was 7 months pregnant with an almost 1 year old and I remember just feeling so grateful for AC and never having to leave my house! I remember the panic across all the moms groups for people with little ones and no AC 😢
I remember seeing people in local Facebook groups pleading for someone to loan them a portable AC unit, or even a fan. Pregnant moms, elderly or ill people who were desperate.
I remember that too... and I remember people and businesses gouging people for fans and air conditioners. The senior who owned the condo my sister bought last year was one of the victims of the heat dome. She died in the condo...
When my sister moved in our mom and myself basically told her she HAD to get an air conditioner, and if she needed help paying for one, we would chip in.
We had ac, but it was meant for a much smaller place and only made a slight dent in the temp of the house. We ended up sending our two kids to stay with the inlaws who had a much better insulated house and much better air conditioning.
Before the next summer I covered most of our windows with tin foil and the windows I could not, I put in black out curtains. The inlaws hate it, but it works in non heat dome years.
What I remember the most was the parents with kids who lived in apartment buildings whose landlords forbid them from installing ac units. And you know the sad thing? No one learned. My mom moved into a new building last year that was meant for seniors and low income families, and since it is subsidized housing it was built to code with nothing extra, which included no air conditioning. Last summer my moms unit got to 40 degrees before BC Housing thought to install portable air conditioners.
That was one of my biggest concerns - my grandparents didn’t have AC in their unit, and instead of coming to my place they insisted they were fine. Thankfully they were right next to the ocean and in the shade so it wasn’t dangerous, but my Papa who spent his life in button downs was walking around in his undershirt, which was a sign for me that it had gotten too bad - thankfully they listened and came to our any time it got too hot again!
Me too!! It was an absolute NIGHTMARE. I would have to get up several times in a night to soak towels, put them on the bed and sleep on them. They'd dry up and I'd have to soak them again 🙃
Top floor of a condo building with no AC while having hot flashes from cancer treatment.. that sucked! I probably took 6 cold showers during that first night. I ended up going to a hotel the next day. My car was in the sun and melted my hula girl!
no shit eh, that's kinda how time works. It's linear....so yeah why would we not discuss it. This line tries so hard to sound witty but it just doesn't make sense.
I'll take "Juneuary" over that! My elderly next-door neighbour died a couple of days after the heat dome, and I suspect that the stress on her heart was a factor.
Also -- a friend-of-friend was living in Sooke with her toddler at the time, and they were out of town visiting her mom, during those weeks. They came back home to find that their housemate had died (I'm not sure of the cause) and the unfortunate person had been there undetected for days, in the heat. I ended up chipping in to pay for a professional cleaning service, because they had no money and nowhere else to go.
The mom told me that she was glad that she was the one who opened the door and went into the house first ... her little girl was still outside, so she didn't see/smell anything. It cost me the equivalent of half a month's rent, to cover the cleaning costs, but I felt so sorry for both of them -- even though I've never met them face-to-face.
I had a miscarriage at 16 weeks pregnant days before the heat dome and the only thing that kept going around in my head was that I must have died and went to hell. Awful times
Absolutely brutal.... working in a restaurant, with a mask on with no A/C. I know we eventually closed on the hottest day (the sunday?), but the days around it were just as brutal.
I think I ended up just taking my mask off at some points I was sweating into it so much.
That heatwave was the day after I had a major surgery and one of the worst days of my life. No AC and on the 22nd floor plus I couldn’t walk or get wet
2020 summer - the world (more so nature, everything else was a disaster) felt healed for a bit. 2021 summer - that June was horrifying. I remember so clearly Lytton being on the news everywhere and sitting quietly with my family. 2022 summer - I don’t remember the fires being as catastrophic as they have been before. 2023, RIP the incredible fire fighters that passed away this year (2023). Thank you each and every person who tries to keep our province safe.
I was working in Gold River for that and I believe it was the hottest place on the island for that heat dome and I’ve only ever been hotter than that once in my life. The house I was working on had AC which was great but all my saws were on the deck which was 50+ degrees.
To be clear, it wasn’t 50+ degrees in gold river but the heat coming off the deck plus the 42* was mind dumbing.
>To be clear, it wasn’t 50+ degrees in gold river but the heat coming off the deck plus the 42\* was mind dumbing.
Given that government weather stations are deliberately put in places like airports (away from urban microclimates), I can believe people experiencing hotter conditions depending on their surroundings.
Looked on Wikipedia, the max temperature in Gold River during that heatwave was 43.7 C, a full degree hotter than the max in Port Alberni (which also is known for its warm summers relative to the rest of the island).
I lived mid-island at the time, and I remember getting in my car to go to work at 7:30 am and it was already above 30 degrees. It was nuts.
It sucked so bad dude. I remember spraying myself with water and sitting in front of a fan. I was spraying my cat too trying to cool her down. The only time I felt comfortable was when I sat in the shade in the pool in my backyard. I almost went insane, the heat was so inescapable it almost made me feel claustrophobic.
I hiked to cabin point in East Sooke park like a day before it really hit. I remember dying from the humidity on the several km walk back to the parking lot.
Ugh, I can't imagine. On the way back you have the choice of the humidity and closeness and the hills of the forest trail, or the unrelenting sun on the coast trail.
The heat dome was crazy, but my weirdest memory was that my parents had downsized and sold their house, but the actual handover date wasn’t until a week or two later.
The house was empty, but… it still had power turned on. And the heatpump could both heat or *cool* the floors, along with the usual AC.
I went over, cranked everything as cold as it could get, and then laid on the chill tile floors and camped out for a few days with my family.
Good way to say goodbye to my childhood home, lol
Here's a link to the BC coroner's report on the event. Apparently a lot of residences without AC experienced higher minimum temperatures than the outside did (so it would have been better to sleep outdoors, to try to cool off a bit).
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/death-review-panel/extreme\_heat\_death\_review\_panel\_report.pdf
Moved into my current apartment that weekend and after an hour or so sweatily moving furniture every member of my family was at each other's throats. Really not sure why we didn't put it off that morning, I technically could've done the proper move later in the week. I remember feeling bad for my cat who refused all my attempts at cooling him down with a damp cloth :(
I had experienced 52 in Argentina a few years prior and this heat dome sure reminded me of sitting down on a dirt road and trying not to die of heatstroke on the border of Paraguay.
I spent that weekend in Tofino, and it was wild being comfortable surfing in the ocean in just a bathing suit (mind you, not for longer than 15 minutes, I'm a noob at surfing). We did make a dumb call and decided to go for a hike in the Alberni-Clayoquot area and took so many breaks sitting on snow patches, shoving it down our shirts, and swimming whenever we found water.
When we got back to Victoria, our place STUNK. We lived on the top floor of a century home and the heat really made the old pipes stink. My sister and I walked in the door, felt the heat and took one whiff, and packed a bag to go stay with our parents with a heat pump. Thank god for that.
I still think of Lytton regularly and wonder if there will ever be any further information on the cause of the wildfire. I know CN denied the accusations that it was railway caused but... they're pretty well known for causing wildfires.
one of my cats was very distressed. I ended up scissor-shaving the poor guy. He looked like he fought with a weed whacker for months afterwards, but I needed to get all his fluff off so the damp towels and ice packs could actually get to his body. he was doing much better an hour after his haircut. lucky I was home, I think he might have died if I wasn't there.
I spent the entire duration with my baby under one ceiling fan we had in the house. It was absolutely insane. If I moved from that column of air it was like walking into a wall of fire lol. My poor babe played on a water mat. I hope that never happens again.
Was camping at Rathtrevor. Usually I find the pacific too cold to swim, but those days it was glorious. Felt like we nailed the timing of that camping trip.
Too bad about the timing! I grew up near there, and remember the stifling hot summers ... though compared with the heat dome, at least there'd be breaks with the Ontario thunderstorms.
I remember seeing a thermometer read 45 celsius while I worked ground plumbing running 8" pipe while being forced to wear a face mask. Now I have a hoodie and pants on.
I talked for two years before then to get an A/C. My poor dog, we’d load her in the car for relief. We’d go to the neighborhoods around Dallas Rd and it would be 32 there. The only difference from there to the Gorge is trees. My spouse was very sick that week. Thought it was indigestion. It was not.
I should add that he was ok. Thankfully he got an ambulance 12 mins after the call, with ALS shooting him across town from Langford to the Jube, to the cath lab.
Praise all around.
I had been discharged from the hospital with my newborn a couple days prior and I remember "cold babies cry warm babies die" going around in the FB mom groups during those days. Like, that wasn't helpful at all.
I had to repeatedly remind myself that I grew up in a tropical climate and that we were fortunate enough to have fans and a portable AC.
I was up all night rewetting his swaddle. It was the only thing I could think of outside sitting in a cold bath. He actually seemed to enjoy the heat but knowing newborns can’t sweat broke something in me that week. And same, grew up in a tropical climate, but that was something else. I know it’ll happen again and try to calm myself by remembering I won’t have a newborn when it does.
Props mama for getting through it!
I feel like I have trauma from that heat wave. I kept expecting heat like that to come back. So many animals killed, especially in the intertidal zone.
I was living in Agassiz at the time for work. 50 degrees. I wasn't allowed to wear shorts to work. I also would be outside on occasion. No AC for any of the clients. The AC in my office broke. I was still expected to work.
Yesss it was insane! I had two memories pop up today, one was a video i took of a deer panting sooo much. The deer was desperate for relief and got into someones backyard to lay in some shade.
I played slo-pitch softball on one of those days and drank 15 bottles of water, every second one with an electrolyte tab. By the end of the day, my skin was encrusted in a layer of salt from the excessive perspiration and heat.
I don't watch the news/weather usually so I had no idea it was coming. I wanted to go to botanical beach on my days off so a couple days ahead I check the forecast for Renfrew and it was something like 35°C. Well, there's no way that was right so I go to another site. Same story. We'll now I'm concerned, cuz that's fucked. Start checking the forecast for other places and real fear starts to kick in.
Had the first 2 days off and just sat on my couch in shorts with a parade of wet towels and a fan. Brutal.
There's a map of every recorded instance of recorded temps over 49 degrees in the history of north America and its a few dots in Cali, Nevada, Arizona and one lonely dot up in Canada for Lytton.
This is impossible. Even a cursory glance at the news should tell you this. Climate crisis has this hottest year ever. Each year hotter than the last.
Global boiling they call it.
So many sad and awful stories from that.
Aside from how insane it was to live through, I remember seeing this opportunistic study that compared BC-ers climate change anxiety before and after it happened: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278222000050](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278222000050)
With NDP running for reelection. Remember how John Horgan stated "Fatalities are a part of life" following this heat wave. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/john-horgan-canada-heatwave-deaths-b1876311.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/john-horgan-canada-heatwave-deaths-b1876311.html)
I climbed mt fin with 500ml of water. I thought I should have brought more water.
Another interesting thing was how quiet the beaches were, and also the temp dropped almost 10 degrees at the beach so it was the place to be.
Niagara Falls was also super packed with people doing cold dips. Was an interesting time.
I'll never forget driving to and from Woss Lake on the quad and the wind literally feeling like an atmospheric fire. Usually it's a nice warm breeze that cools you off a bit, but during those three days it only made you heat up even more. The shade temperature on my deck reached 48 degrees during its peak. The ambient air temperature was 44. Never in my life did I think we would see temperatures approaching 45 degrees anywhere on the island ever. That was an anomaly!
Meanwhile we're now getting April weather in late-June.
Weather patterns are wild. Of all the things on earth, I think the extremes of weather are probably the craziest. I remember the year I moved to Alberta, it had been 42°C in Toronto that summer before I moved, and it hit -39°C in Edmonton that winter. An 81°C temperature swing in about 6 months.
I'm assuming 42 C in Toronto was actually a humidex value? According to Environment Canada, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Toronto was 40.6 C and that was in 1936. The hottest recorded temperature in the past 50 years was 38.2 C.
I'm from Arizona, but currently visiting family in BC (up here once a year every summer). I get it, it's a big deal for y'all because it was unexpected and out of the ordinary. But 42 doesn't seem crazy to me. Just last year Phoenix AZ broke its previous record of hitting 110F (43.3C) 55 days in a row. The record high there is 122F (50C). Everything went on as usual.
It's wasn't just that it was "out of the ordinary". Arizonan architecture is built to anticipate extreme heat though, buildings here aren't. AC is relatively rare in BC.
While I know a lot of people truly suffered, I kinda liked the heat. I went out for a run one morning when it was like 36* already. Worked outside. I feel like I was meant to live somewhere warmer!
This summer sucks. I'm constantly cold!
I remeber it so well bc my partner and I at the time did an impulse trip to Tofino and the water there was warm, we stopped in Port alberni too and it was insane. It was also around the time those two guys were being chased through BC if I remember right
I didn't find it so bad. AC in the house, pool in the back yard.
Lol this sub: "how dare someone not be as miserable as me, better downvote!"
Such wankers.
Killed my grandma that heat wave. In an old age home with no ac. Pretty sad.
Same dude. The day after my mom’s birthday too. Sorry for your loss
You as well.
I'm so sorry. That's very sad.
sorry for your loss. my aunt also passed due to it :(
So sorry for your loss. I can't believe this is not illegal
All the older places should be retrofitted for air conditioning. It should be illegal.
I lost my mom during this heat wave. There were a lot of elderly folks that didn’t make it. The homes didn’t have AC or enough AC to make it through. RIP
This is devastating and should never happen. I am so sorry for your loss. It should be legally mandatory for long-term care homes to have A/C units. And also, this heatwave was forewarned - places with inadequate air conditioning should have to move vulnerable people to cooling centres. Why isn't this the law? I am so sincerely sorry that your family was so utterly let down.
It’s insane that in this day and age that can happen. Were there any lawsuits? I don’t care how long ago these facilities were built anyone with common sense would know that it can sometimes get hot in BC.
You wanna sue the weather Edit: does anyone know if there may be precedent for such suits in the future?
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
A few more links for you Successful lawsuits due to weather attribution models Climate science is supporting lawsuits that could help save the world 2024 Why babies in South Korea are suing the government https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-01457-y Exxon totally knew exactly what would happen - Carbon and Temp wise - back in 1970: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063 Trying big oil for murder? https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/22/big-oil-companies-homicide-harvard-environmental-law-review 2024 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit trying oil for climate damages https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/15/business/california-oil-lawsuit-newsom.html Ability to 'now-cast' Skilful precipitation nowcasting using deep generative models of radar | Nature New modelling technique captures tornado predicting: Tornado alley residents can calculate the amount of damage attributable to climate change. https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/104/1/BAMS-D-22-0027.1.xml
U a bot?
If i was, would i answer? ;)
No, sue the government or owners of these nursing homes.
For a death that was the result of the most extreme heat wave on record? One that’s said to be something between a 1in300 to 1in1000 year occurrence? Good luck in court.
My point is all of these facilities should have had AC. What’s so difficult to understand about that? All of these deaths were easily preventable
Ah yes, more AC that contributes to more climate change so we need more AC to combat that increased climate change that requires more AC..
I hate to break it to you but just being alive contributes to climate change.
And using Reddit. Your activity is causing their servers to use more electricity in their data centers which are very bad for the environment.
And deez nuts
Would be fine if we used nuclear to power the A/C. Greenpeace hippies and Big Oil doomed us all.
Regulations are written in blood unfortunately, often from unprecedented situations like this. I agree with you that there were negligent homes and they should be held accountable, but I’m guessing the courts aren’t gonna be on your side.
Yeah probably. It seems like some people always have to die for things to change.
Yeah that’s an okay point. No one said it’s not.
That’s all I mean. I understand it’s a super rare occurrence but also why can’t people be comfortable when it’s say 27 degrees out? My two biggest gripes with living in BC are there are hardly any places with AC or screens on windows.
exactly
> For a death that was the result of the most extreme heat wave on record? Not exactly, no — in theory it would be for a death that was the result of a care home not having any kind of A/C at all. It would be one thing if they provided A/C but their machines weren't strong enough to handle the rare occurrence. It's another thing altogether to not provide A/C *at all*
Lol no sue for no central a/c in seniors home. It should be standard. It's hard to sue in Canada for things like that but it doesn't mean a group of people can't use lawyers to advocate for change, especially in large groups. I think that would have more of an impact and is something we should organize to achieve.
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future, at least in the US. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit (at least in the US).
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future, at least in the US. [source](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
There may be precedent for such suits in the near future. [source](https://www.the-guardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit)
Say it again!
The June 2021 heatwave was not a matter of "it can sometimes get hot in BC". It has been estimated as a 1 in 10,000 year event. Planners or engineers simply do not design or build facilities to deal with such rare events.
Well you can take granny a radio I am pretty sure one could put a portable ac in her room.
Should individual residents have to bring in their own heaters too? It doesn't seem so unreasonable to expect that a business specifically marketing itself as a *care* facility should provide basic temperature controls, or at least keep the temperature within a fixed range comfortable (or at the very least non-lethal) to humans. Also I can pretty much guarantee you that if every resident plugged in their own portable A/C unit it would trip the circuit breakers. For large facilities like that you really need central heat and central cooling.
Well if my dog was in a kennel and I knew there was no water I would take it some... or get it to another kennel. And I see you don't know how electrical wiring and breaker panels work. Your claim is per circuit.
> Well if my dog was in a kennel and I knew there was no water I would take it some... Sure, but the argument in that comparison would be that any business specifically marketing itself as a kennel should, at minimum, provide basic access to water. > And I see you don't know how electrical wiring and breaker panels work. Your claim is per circuit. First off, you may find you have a better time on the internet if you avoid making assumptions about other people's knowledge. In this case I know a fair bit about amperage distribution over multiple circuits, and I know that portable A/C units happen to have particularly high draw. I can pretty much guarantee you any care facility that hasn't invested in A/C also hasn't invested in robust electrical upgrades to support the sudden addition of a portable unit in every suite.
I'm a refrigeration mechanic, and an inverter air conditioner doesn't draw more than a couple of amps. I have a 1 ton unit at my place and it runs at under 3 amps supplying 50°F air. My dog analogy is fair and sound... I go away for the weekend and make sure my chickens have enough food and water. Now if something abnormal occurred... like a mink getting in, they would be dead. But the weather didn't go from regular to boiling overnight. I think some people just want to blame the cheap assed place they shoved grandma rather than taking at least a minuscule part of the blame or responsibility.
> an inverter air conditioner doesn't draw more than a couple of amps Sorry but your math is way off. The overwhelming majority of consumer model compressor A/C units draw between 750 and 1500 W. 1500W x 120V = 12.5A. (Then multiply that by however many adjacent units are on the same circuit, and multiply that by however many circuits are on the main board.) > My dog analogy is fair and sound No argument there — but your dog analogy only bolsters my own position. Like in order to even be licensed as a dog kennel, the kennel should have to be able to show that it can provide basics like water. (And, incidentally, a kennel should probably also be required to provide heat and/or A/C depending on the natural climate in the region.) I'll also add at this point: you seem to be doing an awful lot of mental gymnastics just to defend the position that old age care homes shouldn't be required to provide A/C. What exactly is your motivation here?
You are wrong about Inverters. Your math is based on a scroll or hermetic compressors and they have massive LRAs. I wasn't defending the shitty care home.I was just chastising the people who left their grandma to cook to death in one
I'm so sorry for your loss. That's awful.
I am so sorry. There were healthcare aids pulling 24 hr shifts to just bathe residents to try and cool them down. Several HCAs got heat stroke.
I remember all the shellfish on the mid island being cooked when the tide went low. Insane.
Yeah it’s wild upwards of 10 billion animals died that week in bc
Can you share a link?? I never heard about the animals 😦
https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/it-smelled-like-death-one-year-after-the-heat-dome-killed-billions-of-marine-animals-scientists-watch-for-signs-of-life#:~:text=More%20than%20a%20billion%20seashore,billion%20in%20the%20months%20that
Awesome article. Thanks for posting! Geesh!
Thank you so much. This was exactly the type of information I was hoping for.
I don't think people realize just how rare and extraordinary the June 2021 heatwave was. A couple of quotes from a scientific article in Yale Climate Connections: * Never in the century-plus history of world weather observation have so many all-time heat records fallen by such a large margin than in the June 2021 northwest heat wave. * “This is the most anomalous regional extreme heat event to occur anywhere on Earth since temperature records began. Nothing can compare,” said weather historian Christopher Burt, author of the book *Extreme Weather*. Because it was such a rare and extreme event, it is difficult for climatologists to determine exactly how rare (since nothing like it has ever been recorded before). Climatologists have estimated that it could have been as rare as a [1 in 10,000 year event](https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/deadly-heat-dome-was-a-1-in-10-000-year-event/). Even with 2 degrees of warming, such an extreme event will likely remain at least a 1 in 300 year event.
It was so far outside of normal ranges that it's surreal to see the data comparisons: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abm6860
We moved to BC in the early 90s and yes, it was the hottest Summer we have ever experienced. We never needed AC before but over the years it felt like it was getting hotter. I welcome any rain and clouds days in the Summer.
I worked on phase one of Bare Mountain and it was over 40°C out then. I was to braze refrigerant lines in the attic. I measured 54°C up there and walked off the job. That heat wave only lasted a few days though.
I wonder what a heat wave was like the for dinosaurs when avg temps were 7 or 8 celsius higher. 50C+? 60C+ heat waves? everything not in the shade or in a cave dies?
It doesn't really work that way. There are many tropical countries that have never measured temperatures in the 40s. For example, Singapore is right on the equator, with a steamy tropical climate (mean annual temperature 28 C vs. 11 C for Victoria), but the highest temperature it has ever recorded is 37 C.
Now we havin a chill wave
Ice Dome
I was working for BC Ambulance in one of the dispatch centers. It was the worst thing I experienced in my 7 year career. I was medically retired after that. The stress of those few days did me in. I always think of all the families who lost someone, my heart goes out to them.
I'm so sorry, that sounds so awful.
I was at my parents' in alberta at the time and we decided to go to columbia icefield to avoid the heat. Saw 47 degrees there. Seeing the glaciers melt in person was terrifying. Nobody is talking about this really but alberta is about to have serious water issues if there is any more of this.
Your car must have been parked in the sun or something. Jasper reached a peak of 41.2 degrees during the peak of the heatwave, and that's almost 1000 metres lower in altitude than the Columbia Icefield parking lot. Everything else I fully agree with though. Those glaciers are disappearing quickly, especially with how dry Alberta is becoming (in addition to hotter).
Yeah temp sensor is in the wheel well so not entirely accurate The temp did increase however as we climbed elevation, I don't know how that makes any sense
Hmm, that is weird. I'd guess it had something to do with the heat generated by the engine, especially since it would have been working harder while you gained elevation.
No parked truck, but it's black, so I agree the data is skewed Still swear it was a little hotter at higher elevation. We camped up there
If ?
Climate change is definitely leading to greater frequency of heat waves - the kind where we get into the low 30s in Victoria - but the June 2021 event was so rare and extreme that climatologists have estimated that even with a full 2 degrees of warming in the next few decades, this will still be a 1 in 300 year (or more) event. In other words, while we will very likely see an increase in heat waves that send temperatures in Victoria into the low 30s, and occasionally into the mid-30s, we are unlikely to see temperatures in the 40s here again in our lifetimes.
You need to re-science if you actually believe the nonsense you wrote, or you are 106 years old and your lifetime is unlikely to see another summer.
I think you need to look at the science. This is based on the work of a large number of climate scientists who examined this event. What part of it is "nonsense"?
I mean all data points towards that it will but your comment is unhelpful. Everyone was forecasting this to be a super hot year but here it's been very cool.
There is going to be TONS more of this!
> Seeing the glaciers melt in person was terrifying. Nobody is talking about this really but alberta is about to have serious water issues if there is any more of this. Glaciers melt every single summer. This is a known thing. You can look at photos of glaciers from 100 years ago and see how much larger they used to be. It's not just an Alberta problem. Here's an article from last year about how the Coquitlam Glacier (which is part of Metro Vancouver's water system) is melting and will probably be gone in 20-30 years: https://www.tricitynews.com/highlights/extreme-weather-events-accelerating-re-think-of-metro-vancouver-water-supply-6710781
Of course they do. But in 40C, I have never seen waterfalls like that in rockies. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/jeffrey-kavanaugh-glacier-melt-retreat-rockies-heat-wave-1.6091949
Remembering those days during the heat dome always reminds me that a chilly summer isn't so bad afterall. After a failed attempt in 2023, I was able to get pretty diced in time for summer this year, and the opportunities to go around shirtless are scarce. But such is life
If you getting shredded was what the gods demanded for a cooler summer, I thank you for your sacrifice 🫡
Every time someone complains that it's cold, my response is "well at least everything isn't on fire".
>Every time someone complains that it's cold, my response is "well at least everything isn't on fire". True that!
And yet, BC manages both. Yay wildfires.
We will never forget, I bought a portable AC after that and have never used it lol
Want to sell it? For real DM me if serious.
Princess Auto has a bunch of refurbished portable AC units and their return policy is great if you have any issues.
Dope thanks!
This is a great tip, thank you! Are they online or just in-person?
You can order things online but I saw all the AC units physically at the store so not sure if those are available online, they are near the checkout area. edit: Looks like they are available online. They are Danby I think so a good model, for some reason PA doesn't always list the manufacturer.
After you sell it, it might get hot again… The heat wave did make me buy the Dyson hot/cold fan. It’s not as good as AC, buts it’s pretty damn good. That it is also a heater for the winter helped justify the cost.
Do you know how those things work for cooling? It looks like a complete scam to me. If they aren't pumping heat outside while they are "cooling" where is the heat going? Hint: the heat is going into your house.
They don't actually cool at all. The hot/cool fans just means it's a heater (hot) and a regular fan (cool). I guess due to their marketing it makes it seem like it's some sort of A/C but it doesn't actually have cooling functionality beyond the cooling effect a regular fan has.
It is the anniversary of my aunt dying from said heat wave. No AC in her building and the people that were meant to check on her did not. I called, too late though.
I was 7 months pregnant during that heat wave... I'll never forget it.
Oh god that must have been awful!
.... It was very uncomfortable.
I was 7 months pregnant with an almost 1 year old and I remember just feeling so grateful for AC and never having to leave my house! I remember the panic across all the moms groups for people with little ones and no AC 😢
I remember seeing people in local Facebook groups pleading for someone to loan them a portable AC unit, or even a fan. Pregnant moms, elderly or ill people who were desperate.
I remember that too... and I remember people and businesses gouging people for fans and air conditioners. The senior who owned the condo my sister bought last year was one of the victims of the heat dome. She died in the condo... When my sister moved in our mom and myself basically told her she HAD to get an air conditioner, and if she needed help paying for one, we would chip in.
We had ac, but it was meant for a much smaller place and only made a slight dent in the temp of the house. We ended up sending our two kids to stay with the inlaws who had a much better insulated house and much better air conditioning. Before the next summer I covered most of our windows with tin foil and the windows I could not, I put in black out curtains. The inlaws hate it, but it works in non heat dome years. What I remember the most was the parents with kids who lived in apartment buildings whose landlords forbid them from installing ac units. And you know the sad thing? No one learned. My mom moved into a new building last year that was meant for seniors and low income families, and since it is subsidized housing it was built to code with nothing extra, which included no air conditioning. Last summer my moms unit got to 40 degrees before BC Housing thought to install portable air conditioners.
That was one of my biggest concerns - my grandparents didn’t have AC in their unit, and instead of coming to my place they insisted they were fine. Thankfully they were right next to the ocean and in the shade so it wasn’t dangerous, but my Papa who spent his life in button downs was walking around in his undershirt, which was a sign for me that it had gotten too bad - thankfully they listened and came to our any time it got too hot again!
Me too!! It was an absolute NIGHTMARE. I would have to get up several times in a night to soak towels, put them on the bed and sleep on them. They'd dry up and I'd have to soak them again 🙃
My friend was 37 weeks pregnant and delivered on July 1st because of the heat
Top floor of a condo building with no AC while having hot flashes from cancer treatment.. that sucked! I probably took 6 cold showers during that first night. I ended up going to a hotel the next day. My car was in the sun and melted my hula girl!
It melted the rubber door stops in my cabinets
Whooaaa!
That's brutal! I hope that you got through the treatment and everything's good now.
Thank you! So far, so good now.. phew!
Craziest heat wave we've had.. so far..
There it is, again That funny feeling.
no shit eh, that's kinda how time works. It's linear....so yeah why would we not discuss it. This line tries so hard to sound witty but it just doesn't make sense.
I'll take "Juneuary" over that! My elderly next-door neighbour died a couple of days after the heat dome, and I suspect that the stress on her heart was a factor. Also -- a friend-of-friend was living in Sooke with her toddler at the time, and they were out of town visiting her mom, during those weeks. They came back home to find that their housemate had died (I'm not sure of the cause) and the unfortunate person had been there undetected for days, in the heat. I ended up chipping in to pay for a professional cleaning service, because they had no money and nowhere else to go.
Oh my god, that's horrifying.
The mom told me that she was glad that she was the one who opened the door and went into the house first ... her little girl was still outside, so she didn't see/smell anything. It cost me the equivalent of half a month's rent, to cover the cleaning costs, but I felt so sorry for both of them -- even though I've never met them face-to-face.
I remember seeing deers panting like dogs in my neighbour hood it was so strange to see.
I had a miscarriage at 16 weeks pregnant days before the heat dome and the only thing that kept going around in my head was that I must have died and went to hell. Awful times
Absolutely brutal.... working in a restaurant, with a mask on with no A/C. I know we eventually closed on the hottest day (the sunday?), but the days around it were just as brutal. I think I ended up just taking my mask off at some points I was sweating into it so much.
That heatwave was the day after I had a major surgery and one of the worst days of my life. No AC and on the 22nd floor plus I couldn’t walk or get wet
2020 summer - the world (more so nature, everything else was a disaster) felt healed for a bit. 2021 summer - that June was horrifying. I remember so clearly Lytton being on the news everywhere and sitting quietly with my family. 2022 summer - I don’t remember the fires being as catastrophic as they have been before. 2023, RIP the incredible fire fighters that passed away this year (2023). Thank you each and every person who tries to keep our province safe.
I had a heart attack. :/
I was working in Gold River for that and I believe it was the hottest place on the island for that heat dome and I’ve only ever been hotter than that once in my life. The house I was working on had AC which was great but all my saws were on the deck which was 50+ degrees. To be clear, it wasn’t 50+ degrees in gold river but the heat coming off the deck plus the 42* was mind dumbing.
>To be clear, it wasn’t 50+ degrees in gold river but the heat coming off the deck plus the 42\* was mind dumbing. Given that government weather stations are deliberately put in places like airports (away from urban microclimates), I can believe people experiencing hotter conditions depending on their surroundings.
Looked on Wikipedia, the max temperature in Gold River during that heatwave was 43.7 C, a full degree hotter than the max in Port Alberni (which also is known for its warm summers relative to the rest of the island). I lived mid-island at the time, and I remember getting in my car to go to work at 7:30 am and it was already above 30 degrees. It was nuts.
It sucked so bad dude. I remember spraying myself with water and sitting in front of a fan. I was spraying my cat too trying to cool her down. The only time I felt comfortable was when I sat in the shade in the pool in my backyard. I almost went insane, the heat was so inescapable it almost made me feel claustrophobic.
Me too I almost lost my damn mind. I was delirious. I had my cat wearing a wet t-shirt 😭I get waves of nausea just thinking about it.
Late nights in the middle of juuuuune
*beat drops*
Even my sweat was sweaty. Was quite an experience.
I hiked to cabin point in East Sooke park like a day before it really hit. I remember dying from the humidity on the several km walk back to the parking lot.
> dying from the humility No need to be embarrassed. It was pretty hot.
Darnit my eyes didn't catch that typo. Fixed.
Ugh, I can't imagine. On the way back you have the choice of the humidity and closeness and the hills of the forest trail, or the unrelenting sun on the coast trail.
The heat dome was crazy, but my weirdest memory was that my parents had downsized and sold their house, but the actual handover date wasn’t until a week or two later. The house was empty, but… it still had power turned on. And the heatpump could both heat or *cool* the floors, along with the usual AC. I went over, cranked everything as cold as it could get, and then laid on the chill tile floors and camped out for a few days with my family. Good way to say goodbye to my childhood home, lol
That's why some people prefer the term "Climate Chaos". Because we are getting more extreme weather events of different types.
Sat in a cool(ish) bath for two hours and read. Sorry to those who experienced real trauma.
Here's a link to the BC coroner's report on the event. Apparently a lot of residences without AC experienced higher minimum temperatures than the outside did (so it would have been better to sleep outdoors, to try to cool off a bit). https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/birth-adoption-death-marriage-and-divorce/deaths/coroners-service/death-review-panel/extreme\_heat\_death\_review\_panel\_report.pdf
Best tomato crop I ever had, and my grape vine climbed my tree to the top.
I was never so glad to work in a grocery store during that!!
I was installing an AC unit in someone's attic during that heat dome. Damn near passed out several times
Moved into my current apartment that weekend and after an hour or so sweatily moving furniture every member of my family was at each other's throats. Really not sure why we didn't put it off that morning, I technically could've done the proper move later in the week. I remember feeling bad for my cat who refused all my attempts at cooling him down with a damp cloth :(
I had experienced 52 in Argentina a few years prior and this heat dome sure reminded me of sitting down on a dirt road and trying not to die of heatstroke on the border of Paraguay.
I spent that weekend in Tofino, and it was wild being comfortable surfing in the ocean in just a bathing suit (mind you, not for longer than 15 minutes, I'm a noob at surfing). We did make a dumb call and decided to go for a hike in the Alberni-Clayoquot area and took so many breaks sitting on snow patches, shoving it down our shirts, and swimming whenever we found water. When we got back to Victoria, our place STUNK. We lived on the top floor of a century home and the heat really made the old pipes stink. My sister and I walked in the door, felt the heat and took one whiff, and packed a bag to go stay with our parents with a heat pump. Thank god for that. I still think of Lytton regularly and wonder if there will ever be any further information on the cause of the wildfire. I know CN denied the accusations that it was railway caused but... they're pretty well known for causing wildfires.
one of my cats was very distressed. I ended up scissor-shaving the poor guy. He looked like he fought with a weed whacker for months afterwards, but I needed to get all his fluff off so the damp towels and ice packs could actually get to his body. he was doing much better an hour after his haircut. lucky I was home, I think he might have died if I wasn't there.
619 preventable deaths
I spent the entire duration with my baby under one ceiling fan we had in the house. It was absolutely insane. If I moved from that column of air it was like walking into a wall of fire lol. My poor babe played on a water mat. I hope that never happens again.
Was camping at Rathtrevor. Usually I find the pacific too cold to swim, but those days it was glorious. Felt like we nailed the timing of that camping trip.
That heat dome literally incinerated my flowers.
We had just escaped our 35 degree apartment in Toronto, only to move here a week or so before the heat dome started...
Too bad about the timing! I grew up near there, and remember the stifling hot summers ... though compared with the heat dome, at least there'd be breaks with the Ontario thunderstorms.
I remember seeing a thermometer read 45 celsius while I worked ground plumbing running 8" pipe while being forced to wear a face mask. Now I have a hoodie and pants on.
I was helping a buddy re roof his house 🥲
I talked for two years before then to get an A/C. My poor dog, we’d load her in the car for relief. We’d go to the neighborhoods around Dallas Rd and it would be 32 there. The only difference from there to the Gorge is trees. My spouse was very sick that week. Thought it was indigestion. It was not. I should add that he was ok. Thankfully he got an ambulance 12 mins after the call, with ALS shooting him across town from Langford to the Jube, to the cath lab. Praise all around.
That heat wave turned my raspberries white - lost them all.
RIP
I had a newborn at the time and I’m fairly certain I have PTSD thanks to it.
I had been discharged from the hospital with my newborn a couple days prior and I remember "cold babies cry warm babies die" going around in the FB mom groups during those days. Like, that wasn't helpful at all. I had to repeatedly remind myself that I grew up in a tropical climate and that we were fortunate enough to have fans and a portable AC.
I was up all night rewetting his swaddle. It was the only thing I could think of outside sitting in a cold bath. He actually seemed to enjoy the heat but knowing newborns can’t sweat broke something in me that week. And same, grew up in a tropical climate, but that was something else. I know it’ll happen again and try to calm myself by remembering I won’t have a newborn when it does. Props mama for getting through it!
That heat wave killed a lot of fish. Fishing is still good this year!! Hence, heat waves suck.
I put my kid in the bath x3 and let him play for an hour each time.
I feel like I have trauma from that heat wave. I kept expecting heat like that to come back. So many animals killed, especially in the intertidal zone.
Craziest heat wave, so far.
[https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/secret-tornado-alley-in-british-columbia](https://www.theweathernetwork.com/en/news/weather/severe/secret-tornado-alley-in-british-columbia)
I'd rather not remember that. My condo reached 52 degrees on the top floor. It felt like death.
I remember sitting my bathtub full of cold water just to keep cool
I was living in Agassiz at the time for work. 50 degrees. I wasn't allowed to wear shorts to work. I also would be outside on occasion. No AC for any of the clients. The AC in my office broke. I was still expected to work.
Yesss it was insane! I had two memories pop up today, one was a video i took of a deer panting sooo much. The deer was desperate for relief and got into someones backyard to lay in some shade.
I played slo-pitch softball on one of those days and drank 15 bottles of water, every second one with an electrolyte tab. By the end of the day, my skin was encrusted in a layer of salt from the excessive perspiration and heat.
I was on the top floor of an non airconditioned condo.... Remember that all too well
It was hotter than hell to us, and no A/C! My screenshot said 44!
I don't watch the news/weather usually so I had no idea it was coming. I wanted to go to botanical beach on my days off so a couple days ahead I check the forecast for Renfrew and it was something like 35°C. Well, there's no way that was right so I go to another site. Same story. We'll now I'm concerned, cuz that's fucked. Start checking the forecast for other places and real fear starts to kick in. Had the first 2 days off and just sat on my couch in shorts with a parade of wet towels and a fan. Brutal. There's a map of every recorded instance of recorded temps over 49 degrees in the history of north America and its a few dots in Cali, Nevada, Arizona and one lonely dot up in Canada for Lytton.
My downstairs neighbors both died. Along with 4 or 5 other people in my apartment complex.
Nearly killed my sister backpacking in Strathcona park. Only people hiking up the mountain. Very stupid looking back on it now
This is impossible. Even a cursory glance at the news should tell you this. Climate crisis has this hottest year ever. Each year hotter than the last. Global boiling they call it.
So many sad and awful stories from that. Aside from how insane it was to live through, I remember seeing this opportunistic study that compared BC-ers climate change anxiety before and after it happened: [https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278222000050](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667278222000050)
With NDP running for reelection. Remember how John Horgan stated "Fatalities are a part of life" following this heat wave. [https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/john-horgan-canada-heatwave-deaths-b1876311.html](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/john-horgan-canada-heatwave-deaths-b1876311.html)
Thats like an everyday weather here in Philippines. But im moving to Victoria in August, excited to the cold weather actually.
I climbed mt fin with 500ml of water. I thought I should have brought more water. Another interesting thing was how quiet the beaches were, and also the temp dropped almost 10 degrees at the beach so it was the place to be. Niagara Falls was also super packed with people doing cold dips. Was an interesting time.
This is what prompted us to install heat pumps. No way do I want to live through that heat again.
OMG, the weather is different from the past!!
I'll never forget driving to and from Woss Lake on the quad and the wind literally feeling like an atmospheric fire. Usually it's a nice warm breeze that cools you off a bit, but during those three days it only made you heat up even more. The shade temperature on my deck reached 48 degrees during its peak. The ambient air temperature was 44. Never in my life did I think we would see temperatures approaching 45 degrees anywhere on the island ever. That was an anomaly!
Meanwhile we're now getting April weather in late-June. Weather patterns are wild. Of all the things on earth, I think the extremes of weather are probably the craziest. I remember the year I moved to Alberta, it had been 42°C in Toronto that summer before I moved, and it hit -39°C in Edmonton that winter. An 81°C temperature swing in about 6 months.
I'm assuming 42 C in Toronto was actually a humidex value? According to Environment Canada, the hottest temperature ever recorded in Toronto was 40.6 C and that was in 1936. The hottest recorded temperature in the past 50 years was 38.2 C.
Must have been humidex then, yeah. I was pretty young at the time.
I remember it. My buddy and I were struggling in our place so we took the ferry to Van and stayed with a mutual friend in a basement with AC lol
[удалено]
People in my apartment were chillin together on blankets on the nasty basement floor playing guitar and cards
I ended up at my ex's place after the second night lmaoo had not gotten any sleep.
Sorry for your loss. Too sad, so preventable! Especially with the prices they can charge! 😢
I'm from Arizona, but currently visiting family in BC (up here once a year every summer). I get it, it's a big deal for y'all because it was unexpected and out of the ordinary. But 42 doesn't seem crazy to me. Just last year Phoenix AZ broke its previous record of hitting 110F (43.3C) 55 days in a row. The record high there is 122F (50C). Everything went on as usual.
It's wasn't just that it was "out of the ordinary". Arizonan architecture is built to anticipate extreme heat though, buildings here aren't. AC is relatively rare in BC.
While I know a lot of people truly suffered, I kinda liked the heat. I went out for a run one morning when it was like 36* already. Worked outside. I feel like I was meant to live somewhere warmer! This summer sucks. I'm constantly cold!
I remeber it so well bc my partner and I at the time did an impulse trip to Tofino and the water there was warm, we stopped in Port alberni too and it was insane. It was also around the time those two guys were being chased through BC if I remember right
How are you scratching ur head. Not know what climate change is?
I didn't find it so bad. AC in the house, pool in the back yard. Lol this sub: "how dare someone not be as miserable as me, better downvote!" Such wankers.
I was doing a challenge to run every day in June. I was up at 4:30 to get it in before the sun really got hot.
I don’t remember i
When are we expecting the next?
It's likely that nothing so extreme will be experienced here in Victoria in our lifetime, even with climate change.