The August holiday Monday was Yellowknife’s all-time hottest day, meteorologists say, reaching a high of 32.6C – fractionally warmer than a record set more than 30 years earlier.
Alysa Pederson, a meteorologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, confirmed the record to Cabin Radio on Tuesday afternoon. The new extreme was first reported by The Weather Network.
The city and many parts of the Dehcho spent the long weekend under heat warnings.
Pederson said Yellowknife’s former extreme high temperature was 32.5C on July 16, 1989. At the time, it was the climax of three baking-hot July days each above 30C. On that July 1989 night, data shows the overnight low remained at almost 22C.
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This time around, Yellowknife reached 32.6C in the mid-afternoon of August 2, 2021. The overnight low did at least drop to around 16C.
“We’ve been breaking all-time records all over the place,” Pederson said. Canada’s national all-time high was smashed this summer by Lytton, BC, which reached 49.6C on June 29.
Délı̨nę, Fort Providence, Nahanni Butte, and Wrigley all set new daily records on August 2 – meaning they each experienced their hottest August 2 on record, if not their hottest-ever days.
Délı̨nę went from 29.5C (August 2, 1998) to 30.4C; Fort Providence went from 33.2C (August 2, 2020) to 34.6C; Nahanni Butte went from 32.5C (August 2, 2017) to 35.1C; and Wrigley went from 32.0C (August 2, 1984) to 32.1C.
