06-22-2006, 04:22 AM
Summer solstice marks start of a long, hot summer
Updated Wed. Jun. 21 2006 11:23 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Today is the first day of summer, and it's going to be a hot, sweaty season according to Environment Canada forecasters.
Environment Canada's Dave Phillips told CTV Newsnet the summer of 2006 is shaping up to be a scorcher.
"We stuck a thermometer into Canada and it looks like it's warmer in Canada from coast to coast to coast," Phillips said.
"Generally the character, or the personality of the next three months, we see as being warmer than normal."
The prediction comes after the warmest Canadian winter and spring on record, and a trend that shows temperatures are generally on the rise in Canada.
"So then my gosh, if I didn't even look at the super computer models, I'd probably offer you a forecast to say we'll probably be warmer than normal because we seem to be stuck in that type of pattern," Phillips said.
Known as the summer solstice, June 21 marks the longest day and shortest night of the year as the sun's rays are directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, which passes through Mexico, Saharan Africa and India.
Meanwhile south of the equator the date marks the first day of winter.
And while the North Pole experiences the midnight sun, the South Pole is shrouded in 24-hour darkness around the time of the solstice.
Though the rising temperatures in Canada and the U.S. are allowing for more barbecue time and beach days over the summer, they are also becoming a cause for concern for many.
This year in the U.S., for example, wildfires have already scorched more than 1.2 million hectares -- more than three times the average for this time of year.
Some scientists maintain that the rising frequency of wildfires is the symptom of a world being choked by global warming, and the situation is only going to get worse.
Mat Fratus, chief of California's San Bernardino City Fire Department, told ABC News that wildfires have become more intense and more frequent in recent years than anyone can remember.
"I had talked to people who had been in the fire service their entire career, and not only this fire, but fires in preceding years, because of the drought, because of the fuel conditions, they produced fire behavior, flame links, intensities that we had never really experienced before."
"And everything we had to throw at it, we did. And it just seemed to burn right through us," Fratus told ABC News.
And the phenomenon isn't limited to California.
Since 1970, the number of wildfires has climbed dramatically around the world as global warming causes snowpacks to melt earlier, resulting in forests that are drying out earlier and fire seasons that are getting longer and more volatile.
And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
"Some of our fastest growing areas are going to have the biggest increases in fire frequency in the future driven by temperature increases from climate change," said Anthony Westerling, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Fratus also said he believes climate change is the new norm, and he wonders how the carbon produced from the fires will factor into global warming.
"It appears that global warming is an issue that is not going to subside or go away anytime soon," he told ABC News.
"What we thought was the anomaly will soon become the rule."
Updated Wed. Jun. 21 2006 11:23 AM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Today is the first day of summer, and it's going to be a hot, sweaty season according to Environment Canada forecasters.
Environment Canada's Dave Phillips told CTV Newsnet the summer of 2006 is shaping up to be a scorcher.
"We stuck a thermometer into Canada and it looks like it's warmer in Canada from coast to coast to coast," Phillips said.
"Generally the character, or the personality of the next three months, we see as being warmer than normal."
The prediction comes after the warmest Canadian winter and spring on record, and a trend that shows temperatures are generally on the rise in Canada.
"So then my gosh, if I didn't even look at the super computer models, I'd probably offer you a forecast to say we'll probably be warmer than normal because we seem to be stuck in that type of pattern," Phillips said.
Known as the summer solstice, June 21 marks the longest day and shortest night of the year as the sun's rays are directly overhead at the Tropic of Cancer, which passes through Mexico, Saharan Africa and India.
Meanwhile south of the equator the date marks the first day of winter.
And while the North Pole experiences the midnight sun, the South Pole is shrouded in 24-hour darkness around the time of the solstice.
Though the rising temperatures in Canada and the U.S. are allowing for more barbecue time and beach days over the summer, they are also becoming a cause for concern for many.
This year in the U.S., for example, wildfires have already scorched more than 1.2 million hectares -- more than three times the average for this time of year.
Some scientists maintain that the rising frequency of wildfires is the symptom of a world being choked by global warming, and the situation is only going to get worse.
Mat Fratus, chief of California's San Bernardino City Fire Department, told ABC News that wildfires have become more intense and more frequent in recent years than anyone can remember.
"I had talked to people who had been in the fire service their entire career, and not only this fire, but fires in preceding years, because of the drought, because of the fuel conditions, they produced fire behavior, flame links, intensities that we had never really experienced before."
"And everything we had to throw at it, we did. And it just seemed to burn right through us," Fratus told ABC News.
And the phenomenon isn't limited to California.
Since 1970, the number of wildfires has climbed dramatically around the world as global warming causes snowpacks to melt earlier, resulting in forests that are drying out earlier and fire seasons that are getting longer and more volatile.
And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight.
"Some of our fastest growing areas are going to have the biggest increases in fire frequency in the future driven by temperature increases from climate change," said Anthony Westerling, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Fratus also said he believes climate change is the new norm, and he wonders how the carbon produced from the fires will factor into global warming.
"It appears that global warming is an issue that is not going to subside or go away anytime soon," he told ABC News.
"What we thought was the anomaly will soon become the rule."