Summer arrives in Canada, and so does extreme heat. How to stay safe

Plenty of warm temperatures are in store for Canada this summer, shining light on the need for protection from extreme heat and sun exposure. Here's what you need to know.

Canadians waiting for the warm weather to finally arrive were rewarded Tuesday as the summer season officially began.

Summer weather plays out differently across Canada, but with the impacts of climate change, one common aspect of the season is that it tends to bring hotter-than-usual temperatures to much of the country.

Last year’s scorcher of a summer brought record-breaking temperatures and severe wildfires, and while Global News Chief Meteorologist Anthony Farnell is forecasting few extreme events this year, Canadians must be prepared to protect themselves from the hot temperatures, said Dr. Samantha Green, a family physician in Toronto.

“We know that these events have increased and will continue to increase, and even if we take immediate action to stop burning fossil fuels and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions today, we have this further warming kind of baked in,” said Green, who is also the faculty lead in climate change and health at the department of family and community medicine at the University of Toronto.

“We need to both immediately reduce emissions … and also develop resilience and adaptation strategies so that we have fewer deaths and less disease from these heat events.”

Summer in southern Ontario started off on Tuesday with an extreme-heat event that carried into Wednesday, which had temperatures registering in the low 30s, according to Environment Canada.

In Toronto, temperatures were expected to hit 33 C Wednesday and the humidity would make it feel like 42 C at some points in the day, the national weather agency said.

Extreme heat like that can pose a serious health threat to Canadians. Last year in British Columbia, 595 people died during extreme heat events, Environment Canada said.