A woman cools down in a water fountain as she beats the heat in Montreal, Monday, July 2, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

The sweltering heat and suffocating humidity that have blanketed Eastern and Central Canada have contributed to the deaths of at least 17 people in Quebec over the last few days, health officials said Wednesday.

And with the muggy temperatures expected to persist for at least another two days, authorities are urging people to remain vigilant.

Montreal health officials said there have been 12 heat-related deaths since the weekend, while authorities in the Eastern Townships region east of Montreal are attributing another five deaths to the weather.

RELATED: Heat wave blamed for at least six deaths this week in Canada

Authorities were also investigating a possible 18th heat-related death in the Mauricie region between Montreal and Quebec. The person had complained of the heat and breathing difficulties and died after paramedics had arrived.

Medical officials said, however, that it was unclear whether the person had an underlying health issue that was the main cause of death.

Dr. Melissa Genereux, head of public health in the Eastern Townships, told a news conference the victims are all adults — either seniors or people suffering from chronic illness. The deaths were not concentrated in any specific municipality.

“There are still two days left of particularly hot weather with particularly high humidex levels,” Genereux said. “We’re inviting the population to be vigilant for the next two days — for themselves as well as those close to them.”

Officials across the province advised people to drink plenty of water and check in on neighbours or relatives and, if need be, get them to a place where air conditioning is available.

Environment Canada says a heat warning remains in effect for an area spanning southwestern and northeastern Ontario through southern Quebec and into the Atlantic region, with above normal temperatures and humid conditions likely to stick around into Thursday.

Dr. David Kaiser, physician-manager at Montreal’s public health authority, said officials aren’t surprised by the number of deaths in the metropolis.

“We would prefer having no deaths related to heat but with four days of intense heat and especially hot nights, we expect to see an impact on people’s health,” Kaiser said.

He said the Montreal heat exposure victims were between 50 and 80.

“None of the people we’ve identified in the last four days had air conditioning at home,” Kaiser noted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted condolences to the relatives of the Quebec victims.

No deaths have been reported in other provinces. In Ontario, a spokeswoman for the coroner’s office said it couldn’t confirm if there were any heat-related deaths, adding it could take weeks or several months to complete such probes.

Kaiser said one reason Quebec has been reporting so many deaths is because it’s part of the province’s extreme heat plan, where health officials work in tandem with first responders and emergency rooms to track down potential cases of heat-related illnesses and deaths.

“We go out to the paramedics, we go out to the hospitals and we ask them to make sure to identify any deaths they believe are related to heat and that allows us to intervene more quickly,” Kaiser said.

He cited a case in recent days in which a death in a home for the elderly led authorities to move five other people deemed at risk to a facility equipped with air conditioning.

Police and firefighters also continued to go door to door in areas identified as having people considered at high risk: those with chronic illness or mental-health problems, those who live alone and people without air conditioning at home.

Also on Wednesday, the ambulance service that serves a large swath of the Montreal area called on people to refrain from calling unless it is a real emergency.

Urgences-sante said it has been inundated by the volume of calls — 1,200 calls per day in Montreal and nearby Laval over the past four days, which is 30 per cent more than usual on busy days.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>It's summertime in the Northern Hemisphere, and a couple of constants remain: Just as surely as it's going to be hot, people are going to want to talk about exactly how hot it is.

But the heat has been so notable in the past week or so that records are being stretched and scorched from Canada to Armenia, with roofs and roads going runny.

Temperatures that hit around 90 degrees Fahrenheit in Glasgow, Scotland, last week were more than the "weatherproof" roofing material on the city's Science Centre could withstand — it began melting, dripping black goo down the side of the building, reports the BBC.

In the U.S., it was Forest Hill Road in Lancaster County, Pa., that was melting in the heat. Motorist Luke Nolt told Fox 43 that he was "sliding around like I was on ice."

The Washington Post compiled a roundup of records tied or broken on our "red-hot" planet last week.

Denver tied its all-time high temperature of 105 degrees on June 28. Two days earlier in Quriyat, Oman, the low temperature of nearly 109 degrees was the highest ever recorded in the world. And Armenia's capital, Yerevan, on Monday reached 107.6 degrees, a record for July.

In North America, a heat dome settling over the U.S. and Canada is responsible for the days-long heat wave, placing tens of millions of residents under watches, advisories and warnings. Heat indices, which account for how hot it feels with the humidity, regularly reached triple digits.

On Monday, Montreal saw a new all-time record high for the city: 97.9 degrees. The near weeklong heat wave is being blamed for 18 deaths in Quebec, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Dr. Mylène Drouin, Montreal's public health director, told the Montreal Gazette that those who died were among the vulnerable: "people with chronic illness, mental health problems, people living alone, people living in apartment blocks between four to six [stories] and without air conditioning."

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante was asking residents to check in on their neighbors.

"If you know people with respiratory problems or people who are elderly, don't hesitate to visit them or give them a phone call to see if they need anything," she said.

Meantime, Quebec's emergency services have been stretched thin. The Urgences-santé medical help service said that since the heat wave began, it has received more than 1,200 calls a day — a 30 percent increase in volume for an already "very busy" agency.

On Thursday, the Canadian government issued a heat warning for southern Quebec, where it says heat index values could reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit. Fortunately, the heat there is forecast to break by Thursday evening.

Meanwhile, the eastern two-thirds of the United States has been sweltering for days in heat that has been deadly.

In Tipton, located in central Pennsylvania, a 64-year-old woman who had been outdoors gardening on Saturday died of heatstroke, the Blair County Coroner's Office told local broadcaster WTAJ.

A day later, in Wilmington, N.Y., near Lake Placid, where temperatures reached the 90s, a man died after running a race on a mountain trail, the Adirondack Daily Enterprise reports. CPR and an ice bath failed to revive him, the newspaper reports, and his body temperature had reached 108 degrees by the time he died of heatstroke at a hospital.

The National Weather Service officials say taking steps to stay safe in the heat are straightforward, yet worth reiterating:
• Drink frequently, especially water, even before you feel thirsty.
• Never leave children or pets alone in a vehicle.
• Check on the elderly, the sick and those without air conditioning.

Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, told NPR that the broad area of high pressure responsible for the above-average temperatures across the eastern part of the U.S. should let up by the end of the week.

But come the weekend, he said it likely will be "refocusing" across the Southwest and West.

"Typically this time of year, the temperatures are consistently over 100 degrees in parts of Arizona, Nevada and California," Oravec said. "But we do have potential for some temperatures that are going to be reaching record levels across the coastal areas of California, with temperatures over the 105 to 108 range."</s>A Canadian climate scientist says Canada and the world are seeing a pattern of more extreme weather events

A University of Waterloo climate scientist says the scorching heat wave that set records in Ontario and Quebec over the Canada Day long weekend can’t be directly attributed to climate change.

But Blair Feltmate also says that suggesting the two aren’t linked would be like arguing that no particular home run can be attributed to steroids when a baseball player on a hitting streak is caught doping.

Feltmate, who is also the head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, says while one isolated event might be normal, the world and Canada are seeing more extreme weather events — patterns that can be attributed to climate change.

The heat wave, which kept the usual crowds away from Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, marked the highest-ever humidex in the national capital — and is poised to become the longest extended high-humidity and heat event in the city’s history.

A 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that about one-third of the world’s population already lives somewhere where the daily temperatures are considered lethal more than 20 days a year.

Even with drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the next 75 years, that number is still expected to grow to 50 per cent of the population — or 75 per cent, including parts of Ontario and Quebec, if nothing is done at all.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>TORONTO (Reuters) - Deaths linked to a heat wave in Canada’s Quebec province has nearly doubled to 33 from the last count, health officials said on Thursday, as extreme weather conditions that have gripped central and eastern Canada reached their peak.

Canada’s weather department added smog warnings for certain areas of the province on Thursday, when the heat wave is forecast to end.

Eighteen of the victims were in Montreal, while the rest died in areas across southern Quebec, the officials said. The people who died were living out of bounds and often vulnerable due to conditions such as substance abuse, chronic ailments and mental illnesses, they added.

Montreal previously raised the city’s response level to “intervention” from “alert” after a spike in heat-related calls to the government’s health information line and for ambulances.

Heat warnings were also issued for much of Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.</s>LOS ANGELES — The first heat wave of the summer is hitting the Southland Thursday, sending temperatures into triple-digit territory and creating an elevated danger of wildfire and heat-related illnesses amid high temperatures, strong winds, low humidity and an abundance of very dry vegetation, forecasters said.

Temperatures will be around 10 degrees above normal Thursday and between 15 and 25 degrees higher than the average on Friday, said National Weather Service meteorologist Robbue Munroe.

A fire weather watch, indicating a potential for critical wildfire conditions, will be in force from late Thursday night through Saturday afternoon in the San Gabriel Mountains in L.A. and Ventura counties as well as the Santa Monica Mountains and the Santa Clarita valleys.

“A significant heat wave is expected to affect Southwest California Thursday through Sunday,” according to a National Weather Service statement. “The peak of the heat wave will be Friday and Saturday when widespread record-breaking triple-digit heat is expected. This heat in combination with single-digit humidities and gusty north winds will bring the potential for critical fire weather conditions across the (San Gabriel) mountains, Santa Barbara south coast, Santa Clarita Valley, and Santa Monica Mountains.

“In addition, the extreme heat will create an unstable air mass that will be capable of producing large vertical plume growth with any new fire ignitions, especially in the mountains and foothills.”

Forecasters said north winds of 20-30 miles per hour accompanied by 45-mph gusts would sweep the San Gabriels, with the strongest winds expected through the Interstate 5 corridor Friday into Saturday morning.

Humidity levels will dip to between 3 and 10 percent Friday, increasing to 7-15 percent Saturday. At the same time, highs of 100-110 degrees are expected Friday and 98-108 Saturday.

“A fire weather watch means that there is the potential for critical fire weather conditions. This, in combination with dry fuels, could create extreme fire danger and/or fire behavior,” warned the statement. “If fire ignition occurs, there could be rapid wildfire spread and large vertical plume growth that would lead to a threat to life and property.”

The NWS also issued an excessive heat watch scheduled to be in effect in L.A. County from Friday morning through Saturday evening, when heat records are likely to be set, according to an NWS statement, which said temperatures would be 82-92 right along the coast, 95-105 inland near the coast, 105-112 in the valleys, and 97-107 in the mountains.

In Orange County, an excessive heat warning will be in force from 10 a.m. Friday to 9 p.m. Saturday along the coast and in inland areas as well as the Santa Ana Mountains and foothills.

Libraries and municipal facilities such as recreation centers, senior centers and museums can serve as cooling centers for the public during normal hours of operation. Find your nearest facility at laparks.org/reccenter, laparks.org/scc or lapl.org/branches.

The NWS attributed the heat wave to a strong upper level high pressure system, causing heat to build significantly across Southwestern California.”

Inland Orange County is expected to be between 102 and 110 Friday and 94 to 102 Saturday while coastal areas will experience temperatures of 94-102 Friday and 88-96 Saturday. In the Santa Anas, highs will be between 98 and 108.

These conditions will increase the potential for serious heat-related illnesses, especially for the young and elderly, those performing outdoor activities, as well as those without access to air conditioning.

Forecasters urged members of the public to avoid strenuous activity in the heat, wear light weight and loose-fitting clothing, and drink plenty of water.

Most important, children, seniors and pets should never be left in a vehicle parked in hot weather, even with windows cracked open, since interior vehicle temperatures can quickly turn lethal, forecasters said, adding that the high heat also creates an increased potential for power outages.

Also issued by the NWS and scheduled to be in effect from 8 tonight to 8 p.m. Friday in L.A. County is a high surf advisory. Surf of 5-7 feet is expected, with sets of up to 9 feet today and Friday as a result of a large southerly swell generated by Hurricane Fabio.

In Orange County, a high surf advisory will be in effect until 9 p.m. Friday. Surf of 5-8 feet is expected, with occasional 10-foot sets.

In L.A. and Ventura counties, “strong and frequent rip currents are certain, and sneaker waves will be possible,” along with minor coastal flooding, according to the statement.

“There is an increased risk for ocean drowning. Rip currents can pull swimmers and surfers out to sea. Large breaking waves can cause injury, wash people off beaches and rocks, and capsize small boats near shore,” but “no significant damage is expected.”

“A High Surf Advisory means that high surf will affect beaches … producing localized beach erosion and dangerous swimming conditions,” noted an NWS statement. “Swim near a lifeguard. If caught in a rip current, relax and float. Don’t swim against the current. If able, swim in a direction following the shoreline. If unable to escape, face the shore and call or wave for help.”

The NWS forecast partly cloudy skies in L.A. County Thursday and highs of 76 in Avalon; 77 in San Pedro; 78 in Torrance and at LAX; 86 in downtown L.A.; 88 on Mount Wilson; 91 in Long Beach; 93 in North Hollywood and San Gabriel; 94 in Burbank and Whittier; 96 in Pasadena; 97 in Van Nuys; 98 in Santa Clarita and West Covina; 100 in Palmdale and Lancaster; and 101 in Northridge and Woodland Hills. A sharp increase in temperatures is expected Friday, when the high is forecast to be 102 in downtown L.A., 109 in Pasadena, and 113 in Woodland Hills. A gradual cool down is expected starting Sunday.

Sunny skies are forecast in Orange County, along with highs of 73 in San Clemente; 76 in Newport Beach; 78 in Laguna Beach; 87 in Irvine; 88 in Anaheim; 89 in Fullerton; and 93 in Mission Viejo and Yorba Linda. Temperatures will rise around 10 degrees along the Orange County coast Friday but by up to 17 degrees in inland areas, then begin slowly climbing down Sunday.

In San Bernardino County, Thursday’s highs include 81 in Big Bear and Running Springs; 83 in Wrightwood; 94 in Yucaipa; 95 in Ontario and Rancho Cucamonga; 98 in Hesperia, San Bernardino and Redlands; and 100 in Victorville. Inland Empire temperatures on Friday are expected to be between 8 and 13 degrees warmer than on Thursday.</s>Dr. David Kaiser, physician-manager at Montreal's public health authority, said officials aren't surprised by the number of deaths in the metropolis.

"We would prefer having no deaths related to heat but with four days of intense heat and especially hot nights, we expect to see an impact on people's health," Kaiser said.

He said the Montreal heat exposure victims were between 50 and 80.

"None of the people we've identified in the last four days had air conditioning at home," Kaiser noted.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted condolences to the relatives of the Quebec victims.

No deaths have been reported in other provinces. In Ontario, a spokeswoman for the coroner's office said it couldn't confirm if there were any heat-related deaths, adding it could take weeks or several months to complete such probes.

Kaiser said one reason Quebec has been reporting so many deaths is because it's part of the province's extreme heat plan, where health officials work in tandem with first responders and emergency rooms to track down potential cases of heat-related illnesses and deaths.

"We go out to the paramedics, we go out to the hospitals and we ask them to make sure to identify any deaths they believe are related to heat and that allows us to intervene more quickly," Kaiser said.

He cited a case in recent days in which a death in a home for the elderly led authorities to move five other people deemed at risk to a facility equipped with air conditioning.

Police and firefighters also continued to go door to door in areas identified as having people considered at high risk: those with chronic illness or mental-health problems, those who live alone and people without air conditioning at home.

Also on Wednesday, the ambulance service that serves a large swath of the Montreal area called on people to refrain from calling unless it is a real emergency.

Urgences-sante said it has been inundated by the volume of calls — 1,200 calls per day in Montreal and nearby Laval over the past four days, which is 30 per cent more than usual on busy days.</s>TORONTO: Deaths linked to a heat wave in Canada´s Quebec province has nearly doubled to 33 from the last count, health officials said on Thursday, as extreme weather conditions that have gripped central and eastern Canada reached their peak.

Canada´s weather department added smog warnings for certain areas of the province on Thursday, when the heat wave is forecast to end.

Eighteen of the victims were in Montreal, while the rest died in areas across southern Quebec, the officials said.

The people who died were living out of bounds and often vulnerable due to conditions such as substance abuse, chronic ailments and mental illnesses, they added.

Montreal previously raised the city´s response level to "intervention" from "alert" after a spike in heat-related calls to the government´s health information line and for ambulances.

Heat warnings were also issued for much of Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.</s>A Canadian climate scientist says Canada and the world are seeing a pattern of more extreme weather events

A University of Waterloo climate scientist says the scorching heat wave that set records in Ontario and Quebec over the Canada Day long weekend can’t be directly attributed to climate change.

But Blair Feltmate also says that suggesting the two aren’t linked would be like arguing that no particular home run can be attributed to steroids when a baseball player on a hitting streak is caught doping.

Feltmate, who is also the head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, says while one isolated event might be normal, the world and Canada are seeing more extreme weather events — patterns that can be attributed to climate change.

The heat wave, which kept the usual crowds away from Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, marked the highest-ever humidex in the national capital — and is poised to become the longest extended high-humidity and heat event in the city’s history.

A 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that about one-third of the world’s population already lives somewhere where the daily temperatures are considered lethal more than 20 days a year.

Even with drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the next 75 years, that number is still expected to grow to 50 per cent of the population — or 75 per cent, including parts of Ontario and Quebec, if nothing is done at all.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>MONTREAL — Quebec health authorities say 33 people in the province have died from heat-related complications over the last few days.

The number includes 18 in Montreal, which has been hit hard by muggy temperatures for several days.

The officials gave the update at a news conference in Montreal this morning.

No deaths have been reported in other provinces.

The ambulance service that serves a large swath of the Montreal area has called on people to refrain from calling unless it is a real emergency.

Urgences-sante says it has been inundated by the volume of calls — 1,200 calls per day in Montreal and nearby Laval over the past four days, which is 30 per cent more than usual on busy days.</s>A Canadian climate scientist says Canada and the world are seeing a pattern of more extreme weather events

A University of Waterloo climate scientist says the scorching heat wave that set records in Ontario and Quebec over the Canada Day long weekend can’t be directly attributed to climate change.

But Blair Feltmate also says that suggesting the two aren’t linked would be like arguing that no particular home run can be attributed to steroids when a baseball player on a hitting streak is caught doping.

Feltmate, who is also the head of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation, says while one isolated event might be normal, the world and Canada are seeing more extreme weather events — patterns that can be attributed to climate change.

The heat wave, which kept the usual crowds away from Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill, marked the highest-ever humidex in the national capital — and is poised to become the longest extended high-humidity and heat event in the city’s history.

A 2017 study in the journal Nature Climate Change found that about one-third of the world’s population already lives somewhere where the daily temperatures are considered lethal more than 20 days a year.

Even with drastic cuts to greenhouse gas emissions in the next 75 years, that number is still expected to grow to 50 per cent of the population — or 75 per cent, including parts of Ontario and Quebec, if nothing is done at all.

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
The death toll from a heat wave in Quebec rises to 17.