More record-smashing heat forecast as Canada, US northwest bake

People rest at the Oregon Convention Center cooling station in Oregon, Portland as a heatwave moves over much of the United States.

Schools and Covid-19 vaccination centers closed Monday while community cooling centers opened as western Canada and parts of the western United States baked in an unprecedented heat wave that broke several temperature records. Lytton in British Columbia broke the record for Canada's all-time high Monday, with a temperature of 118 degrees Fahrenheit (47.9 degrees Celsius), just one day after the village set the previous record at 116 degrees. Temperatures in the US Pacific Northwest cities of Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington reached levels not seen since record-keeping began in the 1940s: 115 degrees in Portland and 108 in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service. ‘It's a desert heat -- very dry and hot,’ David Phillips, a senior climatologist for Environment Canada, told AFP.