Hacker News Reader

Comment by elihu | Hacker News Reader

They were on HN just yesterday on account of the heat wave:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27687297

> Canada broke its temperature record for a third straight day on Tuesday - 49.6C (121.3F) in Lytton, British Columbia.

Also Village of Lytton, B.C., evacuated as mayor says 'the whole town is on fire' - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27695692 - July 2021 (57 comments)

For those not familiar with the specifics of this event in the Pacific Northwest, the three days were all part of the same event, a heat dome caused by a rare combination of factors leading to air compression, preventing heat dispersion. That is, the reason there were three straight days of high temperatures is because they were part of the same weather event, not because of a broader sustained rise in temperatures this season.

This is true, but climate extremes make these events more likely than before too. It's not a gradual shift, but wilder swings.

So, signs of things to come, even if the overall change takes time.

People have very short memories - the wild swings are in full effect. Four years ago almost to the day dozens of wildfires started all over BC thanks to a series of heat waves, forcing a record 65,000 people to evacuate and burning over 1% of the entire province.

I moved to Seattle in August of that year and it wasn't until September that all the smoke cleared up. Literally moved a thousand miles north of California fire country and stepped into.... Pacific Northwest fire country.

Seattle and Vancouver (and their surrounding areas) both have quadruple threats for natural disasters: earthquakes connected to a subduction zone, live and dormant volcanoes, tsunamis, and wildfires. But apart from those, they are wonderful places.

I mean, we are looking at some very abnormal things: https://i.imgur.com/fKCoyPX.jpg

What year was that 100 degree day in January?

When the median of a normal distribution shifts just a little bit, it causes a significant increase in the frequency of extreme-tail events. The broader warm season didn't cause the heat wave, but they are two effects of the same underlying cause.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com