Each year, Environment and Climate Change Canada's senior climatologist David Phillips releases his top ten weather stories of the year. In 2021, four took place across the Prairies and had effects on our area.

We continue with our second story: "The Fourth (Heat) Wave"

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It's not unusual for there to be a heat wave in Manitoba.

But four?

According to David Phillips of Environment and Climate Change Canada, it is rather unusual.

A few days into summer, various cities saw temperatures approaching 50 degrees Celsius. Lytton, British Columbia set a new Canadian record when they hit 49.6. While Manitoba wasn't that warm, it still got very hot. In early June, even before summer hit, some parts of southern Manitoba hit 40 degrees.

"People thought, well was that that heat dome? No, that came a month later!" says Phillips. "I guess people were kind of conditioned. Public health agencies were equipped to say, well, all right, what do we do in a heat wave? Well, you had four to practice with and that was one in early June. Then the big one came. Now it wasn't as excruciatingly hot as it was in B.C. and Alberta, and maybe even Western Saskatchewan, but that dome that came at the end of June? It was like a juggernaut."

The heat dome parked itself over British Columbia and Alberta for much of the summer, before heading east. At one point, 80 per cent of the Prairies were under the dome, including much of southern Manitoba.

There were times during the summer where the temperature was "only" in the low 30s, but the humidex made it feel like 40. Continuing throughout the year, it was one of the warmest falls on record, with many records being broken in our province.

"September, October, and we had warm temperatures even in November," says Phillips. "Now, they were interspersed with some cold weather, but, I saw some 30 degree temperatures in Portage la Prairie in October. Two of them! I mean, come on. That's normally finished on Labour Day."

You can read more on this story and the other top stories of the year here.