Yah, last week was hot. That said it’s July so heat is what should be expected. Years ago it used to be hotter for longer periods of times. Hubby and I have had a veggie garden for 26 years now. We used to plant cool weather veggies earlier (April)- but for the past several years it’s been to cool to do that- Soil to cold and wet. For that matter it’s been too cool to plant tomatoes, eggplant and peppers until the first or second week end of June as opposed to the third week of May.TorontoMontreal, Quebec vs Toronto, Ontario Living here in Ontario, one couldn’t help but notice that everyday we we’re getting the horrific stats out of Montreal, Quebec regarding all these deaths due to the 6 day heatwave. Yet, I don’t think Toronto, Ontario recorded even one death. My sister and I were chattin’ this week end and she too noticed this strange anomaly regarding the two cities. Two large cities.The two biggest in Canada- With Montreal having the smaller population of the two (roughly 1 million less people) Considering the million plus extra people in Toronto, statistically speaking the heat should have hit Toronto harder.Large Cities = Factory Farms for Humans Both cities have a huge problem with the urban heat island affect- A real world affect of the big concrete human farms that large cities actually are. “ Urban Heat island “ is the result of way too many people living in too small an area- Exacerbated by the concrete/asphalt infrastructure necessary to house all the people in areas that cannot actually sustain these massive populations- It should not be lost on the readers that the urban heat affect skews the global temperature readings. It helps to sell the AGW theory. Personally I liken the large cities as being an equivalent to the factory farm. Same issues. Too many inhabitants in too small a place. Convenient for the corporation. Maximizing profits while minimizing expenses. All the while exerting excessive pressures on the surrounding areas at no or little cost to the factory farm or extremely large city.There will be additional information of the Urban Heat Island problem at the end of this postMontrealMontreal Speculates for Political Purposes- “Climate Change”The main push was on the excess carbon theory AGW which has been rebranded to the totally inane meme ‘climate change’Let’s rebut the climate change claim right off the bat- G & M
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.
Can’t be directly attributed to climate change. No records were broken where I live!Focus Should be on Poverty & Inadequate Housing & Health CareFor Canadians born here in particular. Since most of the victims were older males. Schizophrenics. Possibly Alchoholics. Likely drug users. Probably white? Who could have died for any number of reasons. Possibly exacerbated by the heat? But, maybe not.
They were overwhelmingly men aged 53 to 85 who lived alone and had health issues such as schizophrenia or heart disease. Their housing conditions increased their vulnerability. Most lived on the upper floors of multistorey buildings, where heat rose and became trapped.
Interesting that there are no stats on recent refugee’s being affected by the heatwave. But then even those in camps at the borders are housed in airconditioned/heated/ventilated three season tents.Montreal, Quebec SpeculatesG & M
In Quebec, as soon as meteorologists predicted a searing heat wave early in the week, public-health authorities directed front-line workers to pass along reports of deaths they considered heat-related. The measure was intended to help officials target their prevention efforts as the heat wave progressed.
Considered heat related. Not confirmed, but, considered. When I read this statement I thought about the flu pandemic number fudging- When everything was reported as the swine flu, you can create a pandemic, though one didn't exist. I covered that extensively at PFYT's at that time. Manipulating the numbers to push an agenda.
For example, firefighters in Montreal were dispatched to knock on thousands of doors to check on residents of zones considered at risk.“It let us activate our prevention measures more rapidly,” Dr. Arruda said. The figures were made public “from a principle of transparency.”
Toronto, Ontario does not
Ontario is not releasing data on deaths during the heat wave. Officials say they do not conclude a cause of death until autopsies are performed, a process that could take at least three months.
“I can’t confirm any deaths due to the heat wave,” said Cheryl Mahyr, spokesperson for Ontario’s Office of the Chief Coroner. “Otherwise you’re asking our office to speculate, and we don’t deal in speculation.”
What is the urban heat island?
Diagram of an urban heat island. Image Credit: Heat Island Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
"Urban Heat Island" (UHI) refers to the tendency for a city or town to remain warmer than its surroundings, by as much as 10 deg. F or more. This effect is caused mostly by the lack of vegetation and soil moisture, which would normally use the absorbed sunlight to evaporate water as part of photosynthesis (a process called "evapotranspiration"). This is also the reason why forests are cooler than deserts.Instead, the sunlight is absorbed by manmade structures -- roads, parking lots, and buildings. With little or no water to evaporate, the sunlight's energy goes into raising the temperature of those surfaces and the air in contact with them. As the day progresses, a dome of warm air forms over the city as convection transports heat from the surface to higher in the atmosphereAfter the sun sets, temperatures remain elevated above the vegetated areas around the city or town, and so the heat island effect persists during the night as well.There is some evidence that the Urban Heat Island effect modifies the rainfall patterns around cities, at least in the summertime.Interesting facts:
THE EFFECT OF THE URBAN HEAT ISLAND ON GLOBAL
TEMPERATURES Because urbanized land areas cover only a very small fraction of the Earth, the effect of the urban heat island on global average temperatures is very small. BUT, because most thermometers are located in urbanized areas, and those areas tend to become more urbanized over time, some scientists believe that there is a spurious warming signal in global average temperature estimates computed from global thermometer data.
While the global temperature dataset developers have attempted to make adjustments for this effect, currently there is no way to know just how accurate those adjustments are.