The maximum temperature in western Canada in December was 22.5 degrees Celsius

First change: 03/12/2021 – 01:14Last modified: 03/12/2021 – 01:12

The Pentagon, located in the center of the province of British Columbia in western Canada, was hit by severe weather for months and recorded this unusual temperature on Wednesday.

Armel Castellon, a meteorologist with the Canadian Ministry of the Environment, told the AFP on Thursday that “this is a record, or precisely a record.”

On December 3, 1982, the city of Hamilton in eastern Ontario, Canada, had already recorded a temperature of 22.5 degrees Celsius, according to experts.

Pentecost, with a population of about 33,000, is located a few hundred kilometers from Lytton, another municipality about 250 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, where a record temperature of 49.6 degrees Celsius was recorded in Canada last June. Lytton was 90% destroyed by wildfire.

In Pentecost, Gregory Yang, a meteorologist with the Canadian Ministry of the Environment, told AFP that “the temperature in 2012 was 11.2 degrees Celsius, with a maximum of 22.5 degrees Celsius yesterday.”

This part of British Columbia was the scene of more than 500 deaths and severe fire waves caused by “historic” heat waves this summer.

Since September, Castellan has explained that “a lot of heat comes to us from the tropics”, which he described as “the most enjoyable day of the year in any part of the country”.

A week or so later, an “atmospheric river” flows through southwestern British Columbia, the third of the season, he said.

Heavy rains from mid-November in the province caused catastrophic floods, events related to the effects of climate change, according to officials.

Recent studies have shown that some heat waves are directly responsible for climate change. An extraordinary heat wave with a temperature of 50 degrees Celsius in Canada in June 2021 will be “almost impossible” without global warming, according to global meteorological scientists.

© 2021 AFP