I’ve been shocked to hear The Weather Network in Canada repeating the same dogma over the last few years. That is that a heat wave is defined to be at least 3 days in a row of temperatures above 32 degrees Celsius.
2 days in a row of 34 degrees Celsius cannot be called a heat wave. An unending week of temperatures above 30 degrees Celsius just isn’t good enough.
While I understand the reasons to impress our American friends with hot temperatures that make even them sit up and notice, I think that there should definitely be limits to this heat wave snobbery.
For instance, I live in the Great Lakes area of the continent, and when it gets hot it almost always gets humid. The humidex ranking of temperature would easily break the heat wave snobbery. Yet dry Arizona is said to break the heat wave standard almost all the time. Their dry heat is way more comfortable.
Plus, there is the basic fact that Canada sits north of the U.S. and as we enjoy colder winters, we should have lower standards for a heat wave. The temperature differential a Canadian has to survive should not be way greater than an American for us to say it is a spell of weather that is too hot.
But then there is global warming, so we had better get used to the hotter standards.
Still, I insist that Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories ought to enjoy laxer standards for what constitutes a heat wave.
This is my 500th post and hopefully by next week I’ll have spun off the serious posts to my sister site: “Nooz Spun Right”.
