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| Cooling off this week in the fountains at Place des Arts, Montreal during the killer heat wave that has so far proven fatal to 18 Quebec residents. Photo by Eva Flambach, AFP/Getty Images |
I don't think I've ever welcomed a cold front from Canada more than the one that is approaching us.
Just before the heat wave started seemingly ages ago, the National Weather Service in South Burlington told us this hot spell would be historic.
It certainly has.
We never did get past 100 degrees in Burlington, and we won't today, but longstanding records continue to fall.
Yesterday, the temperature atop Mount Mansfield reached 84 degrees, tying the all time record high for the summit. That record was also tied on July 2. If the temperature makes it to 93 degrees in Burlington today, which is fairly likely, it will be only the second time we've had six consecutive days of temperatures at 93 degrees or above.
The water temperature in Lake Champlain reached 72 degrees on the Fourth of July, which is the warmest it has been this time of year.
MONTREAL HEAT DISASTER
The temperature records are astounding, but the price isn't worth it. Montreal is actually experiencing one of its worst weather disasters in that city's long history.
True, damage to buildings, roads, vehicles and whatnot from the heat in Montreal is at most, minimal. However, the Montreal Gazette reports that the heat has killed 12 people in Montreal and 18 people in Quebec as a whole. That really is a terrible toll. That death count is likely to rise by tomorrow morning as more people succumb to the long heat wave.
For comparison's sake, the famous January, 1998 ice storm in Quebec and Ontario killed 35 Canadians.
Just like us in Vermont, people on the other side of the International Border are just not used to such prolonged heat. Ottawa, for example, reached 95 degrees on Tuesday, another record high. Montreal reached 92.5 degrees on Wednesday. It was the fifth consecutive day that Montreal saw temperatues in the 90s.
GLOBAL WARMING?
Inevitably, when we get a hot spell like this, people start to ask: Is this global warming in action?
The best we can say is this heat wave is consistent with global warming, but you can almost never take one weather event in one spot on Earth and conclude climate change caused it.
It's summer, so heat waves are inevitable. This one is unusual because of its strength and length. That the world has warmed in the past century makes it easier for such hot spells to occur.
When describing what's going on, I always revert to my fictional steroid-addled Major League Baseball home run king, who I'll name Zack.
Before Zack went on steroids, he hit quite a few home runs - perhaps 50 a year, let's say. After he got involved with these drugs, he started hitting 100 home runs per year. The chances of Zack hitting a homer while at bat are much higher now that he's on steroids than when he wasn't.
Plus, some home runs Zack hit that barely went over the outfield wall now go way past it since he's gotten the power from steroids.
Same thing with heat and climate change. There's always been heat waves, but now they're more frequent. And often more intense. It's climate on steroids. There's no way to prove this particular heat wave was caused by climate change, but we know the chances that it would happen have increased.
In this heat wave, some nights have been particularly hot. As we've noted a couple times this week, the low temperature of 80 degrees in Burlington on July 2 was the hottest daily minimum on record for any day since they started keeping track.
Clouds and light breezes helped keep the temperature up that night so that heat couldn't radiate out to space. Burlington is more built up than it used to be. Asphalt, concrete and buildings hold the day's heat, keeping urban areas hotter than the countryside. I bet those two ingredients were key factors in creating such a hot night.
Beyond that, a hotter atmosphere can hold more water vapor that a cooler one. When there's a lot of water vapor in the air, nighttime temperatures can't cool down as much as if there were dry air.
Climate change makes the atmosphere hold more water, so the chances of getting an oppressively hot night correspondingly go up. Zack's steroids again.
So, we look forward to our cold front, and watch our heat wave shift out toward the western half of the country, leaving us with a welcome weekend of cool northwest breezes and a Saturday night that for once, will be incredibly comfortable for sleeping.
I can't wait.
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