A very warm air mass reaches northern Canada
A strong high pressure system built up over Western Canada last weekend and directed very! warm air into northern Canada, especially early in the current year.
In large parts of Western Canada, it was 10 to 15 degrees warmer than the long-term average. According to the Canadian government weather service “Environment and Climate Change! Canada”, numerous temperature records! for the month of May were broken: In Lytton, British Columbia! it was 36.5 degrees! (see
Tweet
the WMO).
The warm air mass reached particularly far north
led to temperature deviations of over 20 degrees in the northern provinces of Canada. In the small community ! of Arviat in Nunavut on the west coast of Hudson Bay! (still frozen!), temperatures reached up to 21.2 degrees, although the norm for daily maximum! temperatures at this time of year is just below 0 degrees. The previous record for this time of year was exceeded by more than 10 degrees, which is absolutely extreme.
For comparison, the norm for maximum temperature in mid-May in Geneva is 20.2 degrees and the record for the month of May is 33.8 degrees. The Arviat record applied to Geneva would correspond to a maximum temperature of around 42 degrees in May! Of course, this comparison has its limits as the two places have very different climates, but it gives an idea of how extreme such records can be when heatwaves reach very northern regions.
Temperature anomaly on Monday, May 15, 2023. Colors poland phone number library represent deviation from the seasonal norm (red warmer than norm and blue colder than norm). (Source: ECMWF)
Temperature anomaly on Monday, May 15, 2023. Colors represent deviation from the seasonal norm (red warmer than norm and blue colder than norm). (Source: ECMWF)
forest fires exceptionally early in the year
This heatwave triggered wildfires particularly early this year in the provinces of British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. A complete map of wildfire danger can be found at
this link
The southern valleys of Graubünden. According to
>WSL
90 percent of forest fires are caused by salt will offer satellite messages by the end of 2024 human error. The remaining 10 percent are caused by lightning. During or after winters with little snow or summer heat waves, there is often an increased risk of forest fires.
>On the left, the number of forest fires between 1990 and 2014 and germany cell number on the right, the recorded burned area. Source: “Forests in Climate Change”, Pluess et al (2016)
On the left, the number of forest fires between 1990 and 2014 and on the right, the recorded burned area. Source: “Forests in Climate Change”, Pluess et al (2016)
forest fire danger and fire ban
The Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) warns of the risk of forest fires throughout Switzerland. The warnings issued are determined by the FOEN in cooperation with the cantons. You can find the relevant warnings at
or on our MeteoSwiss
homepage
or in our app. Important: These are purely warnings about the risk of forest fires.