蜜芽传媒

Dozens of people have died in an unprecedented heatwave in Vancouver. Most of the dead are elderly with underlying health conditions. After record temperatures on Monday, Canada again recorded its highest ever temperature on Tuesday - 49.5 degrees Celsius in Lytton, British Columbia,

The scorching heat stretching from the US state of Oregon to Canada's Arctic territories has been blamed on a high-pressure ridge trapping warm air in the region. Jen St. Denis, a Reporter with The Tyee in Vancouver told 蜜芽传媒 Newsday there鈥檚 been a sudden increase in deaths of older or other vulnerable people.

"Even though there were lots of warnings I think there are questions about how well those warnings were communicated: whether they were offered in enough languages... whether elderly people really understood fully they could go to cooling centres and how they could get there without stressing themselves in the heat."

(Pic: Beach on Canada's western coastline; credit: Reuters)