Over the summer, Environment and Climate Change Canada scientists analyzed the devastating heat waves that impacted Canadians. They found that human-caused climate change made almost all of Canada's worst heat waves hotter and more likely.
Environment and Climate Change Canada's Rapid Extreme Weather Event Attribution system uses climate models to compare today's climate with a pre-industrial one. This helps Canadians understand how human emissions and activities are affecting our lives and weather today, as the changes unfold.
From June to September 2024, Environment and Climate Change Canada climate scientists analyzed 37 of the hottest heat waves in 17 regions across Canada. They determined that of these heat waves, human-caused climate change made:
- Five of them more likely to occur (at least one to two times more likely)
- Twenty-eight of them much more likely to occur (at least two to 10 times more likely)
- Four of them far more likely to occur (at least 10 times more likely)
