Program analyzes extreme weather

When heat waves hit, Canada can link it to climate change

- JORDAN OMSTEAD

People try to beat the 30 C heat in Montreal this month. Using Canada's new rapid extreme weather event attribution pilot program, researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada will be able to more quickly and better understand how climate change has affected heat waves.

The heat wave that gripped Eastern Canada last week brought stifling conditions, put pressure on the electricity grid and broke several temperature records as residents sweltered.

While the unusually high temperatures have now relented, fundamental questions remain: just how much more likely was that heat wave because of climate change? And how much worse did it get because of it?

Within a few days, researchers at Environment and Climate Change Canada are expected to have the results.

The data would mark the public debut of Canada’s new rapid extreme weather event attribution pilot program. Environment Canada will be able to say, within about a week of the end of a heat wave, whether and to what extent climate change made it more likely or intense.

Environment and Climate Change Canada is believed to be one of the first government offices in the world to publicly roll out such a tool and automatically apply it to heat waves across large parts of the country.