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 historic late-June 2021 heat wave in western North America. The intense heat wave was the second-deadliest weather disaster of the year, with 1,037 deaths: 808 in western Canada and 229 in the northwestern U.S. The only deadlier weather disaster of 2021 was summer monsoon flooding in India that claimed 1,292 lives, according to insurance broker Aon.
Just two examples of the insane extremity of the heat wave:
- Canada broke its all-time national temperature record on three consecutive days at Lytton, British Columbia, which topped out at a stunning 49.6°C (121°F) on June 29 – a day before the town burned down in a ferocious wildfire fed by the extreme heat. The old Canadian heat record was 8°F cooler, 45.0°C (113°F) on July 5, 1937.
- Quillayute, Washington broke its all-time high by a truly astonishing 11°F, after hitting 110°F on June 29 (old record: 99°F on August 9, 1981). Quillayute is located near the lush Hoh Rain Forest on the Olympic Peninsula, just three miles from the Pacific Ocean, and receives an average of 100 inches of precipitation per year.
“This was 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. Pointing to Lytton, Canada, he added, “There has never been a national heat record in a country with an extensive period of record and a multitude of observation sites that was beaten by 7°F to 8°F.” International weather records researcher Maximiliano Herrera (@extremetemps) agreed. “What we are seeing now is totally unprecedented worldwide,” said Herrera, who tweeted on June 30, “It’s an endless waterfall of records being smashed.”
According to Herrera, more all-time heat records were broken by at least five degrees Celsius (9°F) during the heatwave than in the previous 85-plus years of world weather recordkeeping, going back to July 1936, when the hottest summer in U.S. history brought the previous most extreme heatwave in world history. It’s worth noting that the record North American heat of the 1930s, including 1936, was largely connected to the Dust Bowl, in which the effects of a multiyear drought were amplified by over-plowed, denuded soil across the Great Plains – an example of human-induced climate change itself, albeit temporary.
A rapid-response study from the World Weather Attribution program found that the daily high temperatures observed in a study area encompassing much of western Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia during June 2021 would have been “virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.” The study estimated it was roughly a 1-in-1000-year event in today’s climate, but in a world with 2 degrees Celsius of global warming (0.8 degree Celsius warmer than today, which, at current emission levels, would be reached as early as the 2040s), an event like this could occur roughly every five to 10 years.
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