After the hottest July on record it was hot enough to fry an egg on the pavement in parts of British Columbia and Southern Alberta — almost..And August is shaping up to be another bad month for wildfires in the northern regions as evacuation orders are implemented from the Alberta border all the way up to Yellowknife and Fort Smith..According to Environment and Climate Change Canada, a half dozen temperature records fell in Alberta on Monday along with 17 more in neighbouring BC. .All of the top 10 hottest places in Canada were in Lotusland, led by Lytton which recorded a high temperature of 41C on Monday and breaking the previous record of 39C in 2008..In Alberta, Taber was the hottest hot spot at nearly 37C, breaking the previous record of 36C in 1994..It comes after NASA on Monday confirmed July was the hottest month on record since 1880. Overall, it said July 2023 was 0.24C warmer than any other July on record and 1.18C warmer than the average 31-day period between 1951 and 1980. .In a statement, NASA said it assembles its temperature record from surface air temperature data from tens of thousands of meteorological stations, as well as sea surface temperature data acquired by ship- and buoy-based instruments..The date is then analyzed using methods that account for the varied spacing of temperature stations around the globe and for urban heating effects that could skew the calculations..According to those numbers, NASA said the five hottest Julys since 1880 have all happened in the past five years..“This July was not just warmer than any previous July — it was the warmest month in our record, which goes back to 1880,” said Goddard Institute of Space Studies Director, Gavin Schmidt. .“The science is clear this isn’t normal. And that rise in average temperatures is fuelling dangerous extreme heat that people are experiencing here at home and worldwide.”.High sea surface temperatures contributed to July’s record warmth, it added. .Phenomena such as El Niño or La Niña, which warm or cool, respectively the tropical Pacific Ocean, can contribute to year-to-year variability in global temperatures but are not typically felt when El Niño starts developing in the Northern Hemisphere summer as it did this year..NASA said it expects to see the biggest impacts of El Niño in February, March, and April 2024. But on Tuesday the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the warmer Pacific waters had reached the BC and Oregon coasts weeks early..Closer to home, 380 fires were burning in BC — 162 out of control — along with 236 in the NWT that have consumed more than 2 million hectares. On Tuesday, Hay River Mayor Kandis Jameson urged residents to leave while Yellowknife was under alert..As of 10:20 am Tuesday morning, the town said there’s still no road access into or out of the community, and no essential services including food, gas or healthcare. Cell phone coverage and internet communications are down, with crews and government officials resorting to Starlink satellite..“Crews are attempting to go door-to-door to encourage remaining residents to get to the airport as there is no means of communication otherwise,” the town stated..More than 100 members of the Canadian Armed Forces were deployed on Tuesday after the territorial government requested help from the military. Hundreds of residents are now in Grande Prairie, High Level, Fort McMurray and St. Albert..Hay River was previously devastated by flood in May..As for frying an egg on the sidewalk? According to the US Library of Congress it’s possible, but not probable. That’s because an egg needs a surface temperature of at least 65C to congeal. .On July 3, 10-year old Benji Briggs took first place in Oatman, Arizona’s annual Sidewalk Egg Fry, using a magnifying glass to accomplish the task.
