'Heatwave in US, Canada virtually impossible without climate change'

The recent deadly heatwave that scorched Canada and parts of the western US would have been "virtually impossible" without the influence of climate change, local media reported.

The global warming made the extreme temperatures at least 150 times more likely to occur, Xinhua news agency quoted a USA Today report published on Thursday as saying citing a study conducted by leading scientists.

"In the US, heat-related mortality is the No. 1 weather-related killer," said the study's co-author Kristie L. Ebi of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.

In their study, the team of researchers said that the deadly heatwave was a one-in-a-1,000-year event.


While hundreds of people were reported to have died because of the heat, the two countries witnessed record-breaking high temperatures, said the USA Today reported.

The study has found that every heat wave occurring today is made more likely and more intense by climate change, it added.

The study, according to the media report, was prepared by World Weather Attribution, an international collaboration that analyses and communicates the possible influence of climate change on extreme weather events, such as storms, extreme rainfall, heat waves, cold spells and droughts.


Canada's previous national record for high temperature was 45 degrees, but the recent heatwave in the village of Lytton in British Columbia saw a figure of 49.6 degrees recorded at the height of the event.

The village was largely destroyed by a wildfire soon after.

Meanwhile, in the US states of Oregon and Washington, multiple cities witnessed record high temperatures of more than 40 degrees.-IANS