Five Years Ago This Week: the 2021 Heat Dome
The weather forecast shown to the left was issued late on the evening of June 23rd, 2021, and predicted record high temperatures including a peak of 38C on June 28th. In fact, the June 28th official high at the Environment Canada weather station at Gonzales Observatory was 39.8C, the highest temperature ever recorded there in nearly 150 years of observations. This broke the previous record of 36.0C set in July 2007. As expected, temperatures were slightly higher at nearby UVic operated stations a bit further from the ocean: 40.1C at Monterey School and 41.6C at Margaret Jenkins School. Even Trial Island in the Strait of Juan de Fuca recorded a new record of 35.5C. Meanwhile, temperatures in the BC Interior reached as high as 49.6C at Lytton, while temperature records were also set in several other Canadian provinces and US states.
General information about the 2021 Western North America Heat Dome.
For information on the heat dome's effects on people click here for the BC Coroner's Report.
For information on the heat dome's effects on wildlife and ecosystems see this UVic report.