2021 heat dome fuelled by climate change, intensified wildfire risk: study [Video]

The deadly heat dome that smothered the Pacific Northwest in record-high temperatures for weeks in 2021 was made much worse by climate change, a new study suggests, and intensified that year’s North American wildfire season — a possible model of summers to come.

The study, published Monday in Communications Earth and Environment, concluded the heat dome in June and July 2021 was 34 per cent larger and lasted 59 per cent longer than a similar event would have without global warming. The sweltering temperatures across British Columbia, Washington and Oregon were subsequently linked to fires that accounted for up to one-third of the total area burned across the continent that year.

Researchers looking back on the past 40 years of data also found the 2021 heat dome was 36 per cent stronger and nearly 40 per cent larger than the next largest event of that kind, which took place in the summer of 2003.