Heat wave fries Central Canada ("extreme heat emergency")

[Minstrel Boy]

Heat wave fries Central Canada

CBC, June 12



Toronto has declared an extreme heat emergency, as parts of Ontario and Quebec swelter through unseasonably hot temperatures.

The city's temperature on Saturday climbed to about 31 C – which felt like 41 because of the humidity. It was about 10 degrees hotter than normal.

...

Environment Canada warned people to get used to it, because the heat wave seems likely to continue. "It's the intensity of the heat and the duration," said David Phillips, a spokesman for Environment Canada.

"Clearly, we've had more summer this week than we had all of last year in Eastern Canada."

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/06/11/heat-050611.html

[Canuckistanian]

1. It's amazing

I keep looking at the calendar and scratching my head. I don't remember having this kind of heat EVER in early June (I'm near Ottawa).

[Boomer]

3. Welcome to the New World Order

Complaints can be directed to the "Climate change? What climate change?" Department.

[SpiralHawk]

10. Wrong. Direct your queries to the BushCo Ministry of Truth

They will be sure you get the answer you deserve (assuming, of course, that you are a Loyal and Obedient Subject).

[bahrbearian]

52. LOL

[u4ic]

40. It was either 86 or 87

and it hit 33C in Toronto in late April. It was even hotter than in the Caribbean. I almost fainted that day...

I'm glad I don't have to deal with those horrid southern Ontario summers any more.

[BrklynLiberal]

2. I cannot believe it is hotter in Toronto than here in NYC!

But global warming is just a myth.. so just ignore the heat.

:silly:

[Karenina]

5. While we bundle up

here in Deutschland. Mir ist KALT!

[Canuckistanian]

20. Tut mir leid

I'll take the heat over the cold anyday.

[Karenina]

30. I dunno anymore...

Two years ago we had this heat wave where from noon till 4 I had to avoid my southern facing windows. (I'm allergic to stark sunlight, courtesy Ortho-Novum, that "harmless little pill" my Gyn prescribed.)
Lots of folks died.

The past weeks have been a "new weather pattern," it's cold and dark, but in a VERY WEIRD WAY. Bidness is suffering and folks are in a piss-poor mood...

[Media_Lies_Daily]

35. I remember reading about the same heat wave in France two years ago....

...thousands of people died, and London registered 100 degree for the first time in 400 years of recorded weather history.

[Karenina]

50. Her Majesty grokked the shit comin' down

up Balmoral way and summoned the poodle tellin' him to talk the *dauphin about it. Poodle takes it up the butt again, assured of his place on Carlyle's B o'D alongside John Major. It's GRAUSAM hier, und mir ist kalt. Wie geht's euch???

[Media_Lies_Daily]

64. Yeah...that's about the way I figure it, too.

[DemExpat]

28. Yep, next door to you too in Holland it is like autumn.....

cold, rainy and windy with the heat in the house on....and candles lit for warming effect!

:wtf:

:hi:

DemEx

[Karenina]

34. Landlord turned the heat off for summer

so I heat 5l. of water in my closet kitchen to warm the room, clad in a turtleneck and velour zip-up. :wtf:

[achtung_circus]

7. I'm not a big fan of calling it "global warming".

That gives the nay-sayers a way to use any cool temperature as "i told you it ain't so" vitriol.

Call it climate change, in some areas warmer, others drier, others moister, others, yes, cooler.

That said, I'm cooking in Toronto. We were just at 3 different Tim Horton's before we found one that ISN'T sold out of Ice Cappuccino.

[meppie-meppie not]

14. In Alberta here we've had flooding and I don't recall seeing as

many funnel clouds as I did yesterday. Everyday rain and I'm not near being finished building my ark :crazy:

[achtung_circus]

16. Where in Alberta.

After 25 years there I left in 2001.

[meppie-meppie not]

21. parts of Calgary, High River big time and many of the surrounding areas

I think Medicine Hat and parts of Red Deer and Lethbridge, Okotoks (if you imagine)...in essence it was very wide spread and continues on although the rains have lightened and the flood levels relaxed some.

[u4ic]

58. Wow!

I seen the Calgary flooding on the news - looks like you got those flash floods we had last year (only an hour of rain, and cars were submerged). They said it was limited to the south side...here's hoping that's where you're not!

[ironflange]

69. Not flash flooding

This came after days of steady rain. Today, however, we had a tremendous rain and hail storm here (south end of Calgary), roads were flooded, and my back yard was nearly swamped. I had to get out the gum boots and go out to unblock the gutter along my back fence. Most of my landscape bark floated away, and I got soaked to the skin, even through my raincoat. There's so much moisture around now that we'd better get used to these big storms now. I'm still going camping next weekend, damn it!

[u4ic]

70. Yes, that's what I was referring to

the flood in Calgary today.

Here's hoping you like canoeing, maybe it'll be the only way you'll get to your desired camping spot!

[meppie-meppie not]

73. that's what I was referring to too! On the news they called it a flash

flood situation and the way my plants go hammered and we can't get to the drain pipes to unclog because the hail moved all kinds of garbage it carried along over top and then there's about 2 feet of water over top....sure hope the horses next door at Spruce Meadows are ok.

[meppie-meppie not]

72. hope you caught my post below about the weird flash we got

today, unfortunately we're on the very south side, right beside Spruce Meadows. There are 3" of hail in some areas of my yard and all the rest looks like mini lakes.

[u4ic]

74. I was wondering about Spruce Meadows

considering "The National" tournament is on...and today's the Derby, the longest and toughest of the classes. Nothing is more hellish - or dangerous - than riding in the rain. They rarely cancel any classes, I wonder if today was an exception.

I hope you didn't put your snow shovel away...:P (see that's what happens when you do...lol)

[meppie-meppie not]

75. no kidding! I got mine out to help a neighbour and as for the piles of

hail around the drain spouts, that look like snow drifts from a distance,I'm leaving them. Spruce Meadows has been quiet tonight and there's no way they could have continued the tournament this afternoon, IMO. Hoping to catch some word on the news tonight.

Thinking about building me an ark!:crazy:

[u4ic]

39. It's 11C here in Edmonton

and rainy. The other day, the hotspot in Alberta was Ft McMurray!

The flooding is awful in the south. In Medicine Hat, the river overflowed about 12 hours before expected. I lived in Lethbridge for a year, and barely had any rain (but one huge snowstorm on St Paddys Day. Took me 3 days to dig out my car).

[meppie-meppie not]

41. it's really freaky, I know! BTW..

that's a terrific picture! Our scummy moron never looked so fine :evilgrin:

[u4ic]

44. I say

whoever pie-d him should be Premier! :evilgrin:

[meppie-meppie not]

71. absolutely!!!!

[Canuckistanian]

45. But that's the effect of Global Warming

Adding heat to an already chaotic system introduces more chaos.
Therefore, expect more freak weather stories, old-timers swearing they've never seen anything like it, etc.
And yes, that includes freak periods of COLD weather, too. Chaos increases unpredictability in both directions.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

65. Excellent explanation...I had never thought of applying Chaos Theory!

[achtung_circus]

85. The naysayers,

when they hear the word CHAOS

immediately think of "Get Smart".

[Career Prole]

4. Ahem! That should not read "Heat wave fries Central Canada"

It should read "A possibility could exist that at some indefinite time in the future a heat wave might fry Central Canada, but studies continue as the scientific evidence remain in dispute".

Yrs. Truly,

Philip Cooney
Chief of Staff (Ret.)
White House Council on Environmental Quality

[DBoon]

25. God is punishing Canada for legalizing gay marriage!!

I will soon be as hot as hell.

[Canuckistanian]

42. And technically, "Central Canada"

Is a small place just east of Winnipeg, Manitoba. And it's only 70 degrees right now.
So, you see? It's just a myth being propagated by liberals with over-active imaginations.

[hatrack]

89. You forgot "Even more studies may be needed"

"Sound science must be the basis for any decision which would undoubtedly have adverse effects upon our economy."

[jayctravis]

6. I'm rusty on my C-F conversion...

Water boils at 100 C, isn't 20 C a comfortable 70 degrees F?

[achtung_circus]

12. Oh for 20 C.

31 Celsius equates to 85.6 F.

Factor in the humidity

41 Celsius equates to 105.6 F.

[moof]

13. yes, 20 C = 70 F & 31 C = 87 F

[TahitiNut]

47. (9/5 x C) + 32 = F ... or ... (F - 32) x 5/9 = C

Thus, 20C = (9/5 x 20) + 32 = 36 + 32 = 68F

and 31C = (9/5 x 31) + 32 = (9 x 6.2) + 32 = 55.8 + 32 = 87.8F

[Trajan]

54. I agree with your conversion to F ...

But not with your conversion to C ...

Shouldnt it be ( F * 5/9 ) - 32 = C ???? ....

Shouldnt scale and offset terms be consistent ? ...

[TahitiNut]

68. No. The '32' is the degrees in Fahrenheit of freezing.

(Putting on my high school math teacher cap.)

It corresponds to the '0' for Centigrade. Thus, it must be factored as a magnitude adjustment prior to scaling (i.e. multiplying by 5/9). Therefore, the equation as cited is correct, i.e. (F - 32) x 5/9 = C .

Think about it. It drops the range of F from 32-212 to 0-180. Got it?


We could also follow the rules of equations to transform the C-to-F equation to the F-to-C equation. (I.e. "Solve for C.")

Start with the C-to-F equation: (C x 9/5) + 32 = F
Add 32 to both sides: C x 9/5 = F - 32
Multiply both sides by 5: C x 9 = (F - 32) x 5
Divide both sides by 9: C = (F - 32) x 5/9

Q.E.D.


"Rules of equations" - You can add, subtract, multiply, or divide both sides of any true equation by the same number and the resulting equation is also true. It also helps to keep the commutative and distributive laws in mind.

[wookie294]

8. Alberta was having a heat wave during last Christmas

I went to Banff, Alberta last December. It was zero degrees celsius, which is a heat wave for those folks!

[meppie-meppie not]

17. ya it was for that time of year. It was freaky to have no snow on the

ground in the bigger cities. We've had drought conditions for several years and now non-stop rain and flooding I haven't seen in 10 years.

[Maple]

9. I live in Ontario

about 4 hours south of Toronto. At 3 in the afternoon, it's 90F, and extremely humid.

[Minstrel Boy]

11. 31 C is about 88 F, but with the humidity it feels like 106 F. n/t

[CanSocDem]

19. Out here on the flatland....

...the weather is so perfect we don't even talk about it.

"...some people do, not us."

[Wright Patman]

15. Magnetic North Pole is moving from Canada to Siberia

http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index758.htm

[meppie-meppie not]

18. excuse my ignorance but what does that translate in terms of what

we can expect weather wise? Certainly is freaky about the birds.

[Wright Patman]

26. Hell if I know

Speaking of which, I live in hell for four months of the year, being in Texas. For a lot of people, it would be hell for all 12 months if they lived here. At least there are lots of pine trees and lakes in my part of it.

Sorcha Faal has all kinds of interesting theories about what is happening on her site. She is a Russian emigre living in London. Her late brother was a Spetznas soldier. She usually signs off lamenting the cluelessness of "Westerners" and what calamitous fate awaits them.

[muriel_volestrangler]

31. Probably nothing

Unlike the sensationalist Russian report, the Canadian peice that it draws from has actually got some proper science in.

But the pole's movements are difficult to forecast, since its location depends on a terrestrial magnetic field that is produced by extremely complex forces deep inside Earth. Those forces, at their simplest, drive a churning mass of molten iron that rises and falls on convective currents more than 3,000 kilometres below the planet's surface. The movement of that iron conducts and produces the magnetic field, whose poles are located fairly close, although still often thousands of kilometres away from, the geographic poles.
...
But the pole's continuing movement away from Canadian soil likely won't affect anyone, beyond perhaps affecting the northern lights. The magnetic pole draws the charged particles from the sun that create the aurora, and "the people in Fort McMurray might not want it to move away very much," Heimpel said, lest it dim their light shows.

http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=658628d5-fc19-48e0-add8-bc0fbebadfe9

The magnetic effects aren't enough to drive the weather. While migrating birds do use the direction of the pole, it's not an innate thing for them to follow precise compass directions - they learn the directions they go when they migrate with older birds, and associate them with the landmarks they see. The actual change in direction during each bird's lifetime is fairly small, so it's unlikely to cause them problems - each new generation will start off learning that magnetic north (and south) is in a slightly different direction than it was for their parents. As long as each year's migration doesn't get hopelessly lost (and the small change in direction of magnetics north that you see each year is unlikely to through them off completely when landmarks are also used), the next one should go OK too.

[meppie-meppie not]

37. well, this is one hell of a weird weather year where I live. When I

sat down to chat in this thread it was blue sky's with a few billowy clouds. As time wore on it became very dark very quickly and then it started to rain and the thunder and lightning was the kind I saw only Toronto and Montreal never here in Calgary. The rains been coming down in buckets like the Monsoons in Indonesia and just about 10 mins ago the hail started and they are the size of marbles. My neighbours driveway will have to be shoveled literally, and I think the flood warnings will once again be in place.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. Great info!

[tlcandie]

62. Did anyone read this?!

<snipped from the linked article>
Russian Intelligence Analysts are also reporting that the United States Military Leadership has likewise accelerated their schedule in moving their survival assets into their vast underground cities, but as of yet are still failing to warn their citizens of the vast turmoil yet to come for fear of invoking mass panic prior to their implementation of their new laws for the controlling of the movements of their peoples.
<snip>

This needs some SERIOUS research!! :wow:

[Melsky]

23. It's like a hot steamy kitchen outside

inside it's even worse except in the one room where we are huddled around the ac.

[BiggJawn]

24. 31C is a heat wave?

I still go for 20-mile bike rides at that temp.

Try 37C if you want to experience "heat". Add about 90% humidity to it, too.

[Maple]

27. In June it is, yes

We usually don't get this until July, and then it goes up past 100F or so.

[BiggJawn]

29. Yeah, it did get hot early this year.

I started the chiller this week, usually don't have to until the end of the month. About 10 days early, i think.
By August, we'll be "enjoying" heat indices into the hundret-and-teens...

We always joke that you folks up North lay out and sunbathe until a week after First Frost...Only ice ends the swimming season, y'know, the usual jokes...

[Maple]

32. Well we do wear shorts

in February, if that helps. :D

[Gregorian]

43. I do too, but...

I hate the heat. But I love riding my bike in it. I'm an avid biker. Have been since the late sixties. I remember riding up steep grades in 111 degree heat. But sitting around in it is hell. I don't know if there's a universal truth hidden in that, or if it's just me.

I once had a property where it was 90 degrees all night long. Try that for a while, Canada. This is why coastal property is expensive. Marine influence. It's probably also why it's blue- the people have brains.

Uh oh, it's time for a bike ride. My 26 percent grade is waiting for me...

[Robbien]

33. We've had Northern Lights over Chicago

three times in the past year I believe.

If it is not Global Warming as Bush insists it is not, something is very wonky.

[barb162]

66. and I have missed every one of them. Did you see them?

[Up2Late]

36. When did Toronto become Central Canada? That's Southern Canada

Maybe I'm being too literal, but I would call Central Canada Northern Saskatchewan or Northern Manitoba.

Now that WOULD be worrisome.

[meppie-meppie not]

38. I always called it Eastern Canada but then I am geography challenged

[Canuckistanian]

48. You're absolutely right

I don't live in Central Canada, I'm in Eastern Canada. One glance at a map could show you that.

[Kagemusha]

60. When? Uh, when they wrote it in school textbooks?

I was educated in Canada and there is no way, no how, that Ontario and Quebec were ever not known as Central Canada. The term wasn't coined looking at a map of the northern territories. Geography is a human invention; it's not called Southern Canada because 90% of the population lives in that "south" so it's not nearly distinctive enough to be of any use to the listener.

[Up2Late]

79. I guess it's like here in the U.S., we say "The Mid-West"...

...which most would say is Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, and maybe Kentucky, and sometimes even Pennsylvania.

Most outside of the U.S. would probably not agree.

[XemaSab]

46. Rained here in California

last week.

(Freakishly late rainstorm)

[Trajan]

55. Rainy and cool in Colorado ....

and beautiful as all getout ...

[Porcupine]

84. Actually a thunderstorm!!! In Chico!

Saturday night we had a thunderstorm in Chico CA. For people unfamiliar with Northern California weather patterns it might as well have been raining frogs.

It does not rain in June here. Summer thunderstorms are unheard of before September. Well at least before Climate Change that was the pattern. This is ruining crops in one of America's most productive farm regions. It SHOULD be 100 degrees and dry and instead it's raining twice a week. Weird!!

[XemaSab]

87. Thunderheads

have been building over the high country for a few weeks now.

Here's your 8 Day Forecast:

Winter. Summer. Winter. Summer. Summer. Winter. Summer. Summer.

[thecrow]

49. It hit 95 in Canso, NS a couple years ago at Stan Fest

The festival is a great place to go the first weekend of July btw.
Canadian music. great food, people from all over the world.
And beautiful weather! (a bit hot though heheh)

[demnan]

51. We had a radical change in weather

starting last week in the D.C. area. Up to three weeks ago I had the heat on some nights. The days were mostly beautiful in the 70's but sometimes rainy and in the 50's. Starting last Saturday it has been in the upper 80's to 90's and with the intolerable humidity we usually experience in August. It's really difficult to get used to the heat so quickly when it has been so cool for so long.

I feel sorry for you Canadians. To Southern U.S'ers who poo-hoo the temperatures, just remember most of these folks don't have central AC in their homes. It's even worse if you live in an apartment or condo with no cross ventilation.

[Lisa]

56. excellent point, demnan ...

It's quite common for Canadian homes to have been built without air conditioners. Sometimes people have upgraded, but often they don't -- particularly in low-income areas. Places like the west coast are even less prepared, since heatwaves are so rare. You've got a better chance of finding a snow shovel in Victoria than central AC (if it goes into the high 80s for more than 2 days, it's beyond most people's experience). I grew up in southern Ontario, where we'd usually get some hot sticky weather in the summer -- if you weren't lucky enough to be able to flee for "cottage country" up north, you took refuge in the one room with the air conditioner, or in my family's case, left the windows open in the hopes of catching a draft.

And if the power goes out, as it did in Toronto a while back, even those rich enough to have air conditioning can't use it. Buildings designed in the belief that cheap energy can meet our heating/cooling/lighting needs are unusable when the crunch hits. Unfortunately this is true for many North American homes and workplaces built since the 1980s.

[NYC]

86. Same change in NYC, a steam bath.

I heard it is supposed to break tomorrow. I hope so.

Immediately before the heat wave, it had been cool, probably because of the frequent rain. Unusual. I enjoyed the coolness. The steam bath is killing me.

[Lisa]

53. I'm glad they developed heat emergency strategies a couple years ago

Imagine if they'd been caught totally unprepared by this! At the time, some people thought that planning emergency cooling centres, etc., was overreacting ... but it turns out to have been good practice. With luck there won't be as many casualties as in France a while back, or as in the US Midwest several years go. I hope the heatwave breaks soon, and that there isn't a blackout on top of all this. I'm going to phone my elderly parents -- if last year is any indication, they're probably holed up in the basement, keeping cool.

[CHIMO]

57. Warm weather brings early blooms to Yukon

Warm weather brings early blooms to Yukon
Last Updated Fri, 10 Jun 2005 15:00:16 EDT

The hills and forests of Yukon are awash with wildflowers these days – some varieties blooming weeks ahead of their usual times, to the surprise of people who monitor plants.

"I've got goldenrod in bloom," said Lori Schroeder of PlantWatch Yukon. "I'm kind of surprised we're at the beginning of June and we have goldenrod."
"That seems quite early to me. I'm not used to seeing that at the beginning of June." Goldenrod usually doesn't flower in the Yukon until July.

Observers have also seen wild rose, harebells, broadleaf fireweed, groundsel, beard's tongue, wild sweet pea, sage and many others in full bloom already. Some are blooming days or weeks ahead of their usual flowering times.

http://www.cbc.ca/story/science/national/2005/06/10/flowers-Yukon050610.html

For those that think they won't see a signifignat change in their life time, well they have most likely never heard of "Chaos Theory". Yea, I know it's only a theory so we don't have to worry about it.

I don't know of any scientific consensus that says how long the climate change will take to happen. In addition I don't know of a scientific consensus that limits the change to the world.

So god has to wait a bit longer to improve on creation? Guess it has plenty of time.

[daleo]

59. Heat wave fries Central Canada

Better heat wave fries than freedom fries.

[kineneb]

61. You are allowed to be envious.

I think it was in the low 80's (F) today, humidity around 30%. Had to turn the AC on at 5:30 pm so Hubby wouldn't overheat (kidney damage). Where: Northern California, Lake Co. Should cool off to the 50's tonight.

Now the wierd part...our weather should have been like this for three weeks. Instead, we kept getting these rain storms. I mean, really now...serious rain in June in NorCal? I actually had to wear a warm coat because it got rather chilly.

I do think the weather pattern here is shifting. Rains come later, then we get rain into June. Previous pattern was rain in mid-late October and then it stopped around mid-late May.

[progressivebydesign]

63. But here in the PNW it's been below norm temps..

.. and my friend in Belgium reports the same.

[PurityOfEssence]

67. GLOBAL CLIMATE DISRUPTION

Frank Luntz has succeded in getting the right wingers to use the term "climate change" to dispel the fears of Global Warming, and since many of the immediate results aren't necessarily warm but unseasonally cold, they can sway the ignorant.

The issue is the upsetting of normal patterns, and this phenomenon should be expressed in calamitous terms.

[barb162]

76. funny that they use the word "swelter" for 87

wonder what word they'd use for 100

[Maple]

77. Are you SURE

you want to know what words we use for it?? :D

[barb162]

78. okay I guess I don't

[nolabels]

80. One hundred degrees Fahrenheit is a cool night at the River

Sometimes in the summer, for months on end, it seems that it never gets below that century mark day or night,


http://www.riversideresort.com/
but most of the time the tourist rarely complain about it.


http://www.visitlaughlin.com/

[barb162]

81. yeah but that's dry heat (bwaha)

[TrogL]

82. Welcome to Canadian weather

I was wearing a parka today (Edmonton) and Toronto has a heat wave. Go figure.

[arikara]

83. Our climate has been changing seems like every half hour

Victoria BC, this morning it rained a bit then got cold and windy, by noon was hot and sunny, then pouring rain again by around 7 PM. The house felt so cold and damp that we lit the woodstove to take the chill off. Traditionally for this time of year it should be a nice and balmy 75 degrees (F) this time of year.

[Lisa]

88. and now it's sunny again

All this up and down stuff is messing with my cukes -- I have them in a warm spot up against the house, but the recent cold spell has them confused.