Sick of the hot weather and poor air quality?
In the midst of an unprecedented heat wave, an air quality advisory has been issued for the Metro Vancouver region.
And while temperatures are expected to cool down slightly during the day, they aren't expected to cool down overnight.
Environment and Climate Change Canada meteorologist Terri Lang told Vancouver Is Awesome that temperatures need to drop overnight to offer a reprieve from the relentless heat during the day.
"The heat is easing. I don't want to say it's cooling off," she said. "It's just kind of becoming less hot."
Lang emphasized that the overnight lows are still quite high. "So the heat advisory will probably be in place probably until (July 1) when the overnight lows start to drop."
But the heat might creep up again.
"Later on in the week we kind of see the highs creep up again a little bit there," explained Lang. "So, you know, we'll have to keep an eye on that to see if they get into the heat warning territory again."
The poor air quality comes in tandem with the hot weather, Lang noted, because the "air is trapped underneath these...ridges of high pressure that give this really intense heat."
As cool marine air continues to enter the region it will begin to clear the air. However, the air quality is contingent on several factors, she added.
B.C. records nearly 500 deaths and counting during heat wave
A devastating heat wave that paralyzed the Pacific Northwest over the last five days has been linked to 486 sudden and unexpected deaths.
That’s 321 more sudden deaths — a 195 per cent increase — more than would occur over a normal five-day period.
Like its counterparts in fire, ambulance and law enforcement, coroners have been overwhelmed by the uptick in sudden deaths, particularly in the Lower Mainland. By Wednesday, the service had mobilized all its full and part-time coroner staff and sent them to the field to clear a backlog in sudden deaths.
With files from Stefan Labbé.
