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- BBC News World
Image source, 2 Rivers Remix Society
Lytton – some 260 km northeast of Vancouver – was engulfed in flames Wednesday night.
A small town in British Columbia, with the highest temperature in Canadian history this week, has had to be evacuated due to the out-of-control fires affecting it.
According to Canadian public television CBC, Lytton – some 260 km northeast of Vancouver – was engulfed in flames Wednesday night, forcing its residents to flee, many without their belongings.
It was the mayor of Lytton, Jan Polderman, who gave the order to evacuate the city’s 250 residents, in which thermometers reached 49.5 ° C on Tuesday, the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada.
“It’s terrible. The whole town is on fire.”Polderman told CBC News. “It took about 15 minutes from the first smoke signal until all of a sudden there was fire everywhere. “
Video shows residents running out of town and numerous structures on fire.
The news comes as western Canada and the northwestern United States face a historic heat wave that has set temperature records in many places.
In addition, British Columbia has recorded 486 sudden deaths in the past five days, three times the usual number. Many of these deaths are attributed to the heat.
And in the western United States, there are at least 80 dead, according to the AP agency.
Image source, Getty Images
“Heat dome”
The cause of this wave corresponds to a “heat dome” of static hot airO high pressure (which acts like the lid of a pot) that stretches from California to the Arctic territories.
Temperatures are lower in coastal areas, but inland areas have little respite.
Before Sunday, temperatures in Canada had never exceeded 45 ° C. Experts say climate change is expected to increase the frequency of these extreme events. However, it is complex to make the connection between what is happening in Canada today and global warming.
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