Canada Northwest Territories Hit New Hottest Day Records as Worst Wildfire Season Rages

Canada's Northwest Territories (NWT) encounters unprecedented heat waves with some areas smashing new hottest-day records.

The extremely high temperature comes amid the worst wildfire season on record that the country is grappling with.

Canada Northwest Territories Hit New Hottest Day Record

As the nation battles a raging inferno during its worst wildfire season, Mother Nature decided to crank up the heat. As per a report by BBC, the Northwest Territories of Canada witnessed a sizzling surge in temperatures, its hottest day on record.

Weather experts say that temperatures in the Northwest Territories have broken new records. Environment Canada meteorologist Jesse Wagar says Fort Good Hope in NWT encountered "the hottest temperature recorded that far north in Canada." On top of that, Wagar also observed that "each summer is just getting hotter and hotter."

Norman Wells, just south of Fort Good Hope, reached 37.9 Celsius or 100.2 Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, Weather Network in Ontario reports that Ottawa's record-breaking high temperature is at 37.8C.

The Washington Post reports that an extreme-weather historian Christopher Burt stresses that the temperature in North Wells is merely 0.1 Celsius away from the north of the Arctic Ocean's hottest temperature. It is at 38.0C.

Wagar "May, June, and July have all seen pretty incredible temperature records, and temperature records are falling at a pretty significant rate."

BBC points out that in June 2023, NWT has already broken 24 hottest temperature records, compared to the four records last year, or in June 2022, to be precise. In July 2022, Canada's Northern Territories broke a total of 18 records, whereas, in the first nine days of July this year, it is already at 17.

Canada's Raging Wildfire Season

Canada Wildfire — French firefighters battle fires north from the city of Chibugamau, Quebec, in Canada on June 12, 2023. Quebec has deployed hundreds of firefighters, with help from France and the United States as Canada is hit hard by unprecedented wildfires that have ravaged the country. QUENTIN TYBERGHIEN/AFP via Getty Images

As if the blazing temperatures were not enough, the Northwest Territories experiences an unforgiving wildfire crisis. The fires have spread across vast swaths of land, leaving widespread devastation.

According to CBS News, Canada is currently grappling with the worst wildfire season on record. In late June, the smoke plume from the catastrophe reached Europe, apart from the air quality alerts throughout the United States and Canada.

An updated map by the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre shows that the wildfire has devastatingly spread to several provinces in the country. The blazing flame particularly affected eastern provinces like Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. As of late June, local officials disclosed that Quebec still has roughly 106 active fires.