Canada is maybe one of the last places that come to mind when you think about heat waves and drought. Think again.
With
2015 on pace to break last year’s record for the planet’s hottest year,
the snowy Great White North has learned it’s not immune to global
warming.
Wildfires in Canada are on the rise, triggered by high temperatures and drought.
Western
Canada, home to glaciers and source of some of the world’s longest
rivers, has been hit by wildfires and dry spells from British Columbia’s
Pacific Coast to the prairies in Saskatchewan. The thaw in the Rocky
Mountains came too early, before enough snow accumulated to feed streams
in the summer. Vancouver, known for its rainy weather, has had to
restrict water use much like drought-struck California.
“This
is what Canada looks like without the cold,” John Pomeroy, a University
of Saskatchewan researcher, said in an interview from Canmore, Alberta,
where he studies water basins in the Rockies. “We’ve really built our
western Canadian society around the water from the snowpack.”
Rising Temperatures Droughts
in Canada are less severe than in balmier climes because the long, cold
winters suppress evaporation from the soil. Yet with temperatures as
much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 Fahrenheit) above normal this year, the
dryness has been anything but mild, affecting industries from the oil sands to wine makers. Crude
producers have less water from the Athabasca River in northern Alberta
to mine bitumen after declining flows led the province to impose
restrictions. Forest fires halted production in some areas in June. Canadian
wheat and canola yields probably will drop to eight-year lows because of
the dryness, grain-marketer CWB said in July. Freshwater fishing on
Vancouver Island was banned last month as higher water temperatures in
salmon streams threaten a C$1 billion ($750 million)-a-year
sport-fishing industry.
Agricultural Disaster Parts of
Alberta are experiencing the lowest levels of rain in 50 years,
according to the agriculture ministry. The province declared the
situation an agricultural disaster. Further west, Church &
State Wines near the British Columbia town of Oliver narrowly missed
being engulfed in flames as wildfires swept near the property, according
to the company’s Twitter feed. Hydropower across the region
will also be affected as far east as Manitoba’s Nelson River, which is
fed by water from the Rockies via the Saskatchewan River system, Pomeroy
said. Water volumes at the mouth of the Bow River that flows through
Calgary was just 10 percent of normal in early July.
Shared Misery In
British Columbia’s case, misery may love company: Its neighbors to the
south, Washington state and Idaho, as well as Oregon, Nevada and
California, all are similarly suffering drought-induced water stress. Residents
of Vancouver, more accustomed to regular rainfall than dryness, now
face fines of C$300 to C$500 for illegal watering. They may need to get
used to it in years to come if drought issues become the new norm even
in Canada. “It’s surprising how many communities are unprepared
for climate change,” said Kevin Hanna, a professor at the University of
British Columbia. “We’re setting ourselves up for more interesting
weather.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-26/snowy-canada-suffers-drought-heat-fires-as-earth-gets-warmer