‘Dangerously hot and humid’ weather to hit southern Ontario, Quebec

A large swath of Ontario as well as parts of Quebec are under a heat warning as “dangerously hot and humid” weather conditions are expected for most of the week, Environment Canada said.

“A prolonged heat event will begin today,” Environment Canada said in a special weather alert posted just before 6 a.m. Monday.

The multi-day heat event is expected to last until Thursday or Friday, the weather agency said. The warning in Ontario extends from Windsor across the Greater Toronto Area to Ottawa and north to Moosonee. It also includes parts of Quebec such as Montreal and Quebec City.

Environment Canada said daytime highs are expected to hit between 30 C and 35 C with humidex values of 40 to 45.

There will be “little relief” through the overnight as lows are expected to be 20 C to 23 C with humidex values of 26 to 30. Temperatures and humidex values could be several degrees cooler near the Great Lakes, the weather agency said.

New Brunswick is also expected to brace the heat wave starting on Tuesday. The heat is projected to rise throughout Wednesday and Thursday, with conditions forecast to reach between 30 C and 33 C, and potentially feeling like 40 C due to the humidity on both days.

Global News Meteorologist Anthony Farnell said the centre of the heat dome is sitting over the northeast U.S.

“It has been a very hot and humid spring in Mexico and across the southern US and those anomalies are now moving north,” Farnell said.

“Kids are also still in school and some city pools and facilities are not even up and running yet so the timing of this heat makes it more dangerous than a similar stretch in July or August,” he added.

Farnell said this heat dome is “setting up a similar latitude and time of year to the record-smashing B.C. heat dome of June/July 2021.” That was the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada and the wildfires that followed, he said.

However, Farnell said the setup this week in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes will “fall short” of what occurred in B.C. three years ago but that it does “join a troubling trend of longer duration and more extreme heat events made worse by climate change.”

He said there might be some relief this week from isolated afternoon or evening thunderstorms that form around the edge of the heat dome.

“This would temporarily lower temperatures, but also add humidity to the already tropical airmass in place,” Farnell said.

He noted that more significant relief will come over the weekend as the heat dome weakens and a stronger cold front moves through the Great Lakes all the way to the Maritimes.

“Thunderstorms are likely along with lower temperatures and humidity,” he said.

‘A very hot summer’

Farnell said he is predicting a “very hot summer” across most of Canada and the northern U.S.

“One thing is certain, this will not be the last heat dome of the summer,” he said.

Environment Canada also said in their alert that the heat wave could also bring deteriorating air quality and can result in the Air Quality Index reach the high risk range.

The weather agency warns to look out for signs of heat illness such as swelling, rash, cramps, fainting, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and the worsening of some health conditions.

Those more at-risk are older adults, infants and young children, pregnant people, people with physical and/or mental illnesses, and people with disabilities or mobility issues. They warn to never leave people, particularly children or pets, inside a parked vehicle.

The Waterloo Regional Police Service in Ontario said officers have had to rescue at least 10 animals from hot vehicles so far in the month of June.

The local police service is reminding residents not to leave pets inside of cars ahead of the forecasted heat wave. Last week, Waterloo police said a kitten had to be rescued after it had been left alone inside a hot car at high noon.

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