It’s hot, but Toronto hasn’t yet seen a heat wave – at least, according to the traditional definition.
While there’s no internationally accepted meaning, most define a heat wave as three or more days of temperatures over 32 C, said Dave Phillips, climatologist with Environment Canada.
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“It is not a heat wave, from that definition,” he said. This temperature was picked because 32 C equals 90 F.
“90 degrees feels a lot more like you could cook bacon and eggs on the sidewalk.”
Tuesday’s temperature peaked at 32.7 C, and Phillips believes it will get just as hot Wednesday and Thursday.
“My sense is we may be in the midst of one, but it really just started yesterday,” he said.
But the problem with hot temperatures is the cumulative effect.
“Having four days of temperatures at 31 is much more debilitating than one day at 32,” he said.
It was already 26 C at 7 a.m. Wednesday. Phillips said when the temperatures don’t go down below 20 C at night is usually when people start to get sick from the heat.
“What we have seen, that to me, is quite significant is the fact we’ve had three days in a row of temperatures above 20,” he said. “That to me, in some days, is the new heat wave.”
A heat alert was issued for Toronto on Monday, and was upgraded to an extreme heat alert Tuesday, which continues.
During the extreme heat alert, the city has opened cooling centres, and outdoor public pools will stay open until 11:45 p.m.