In mid-June, Atlantic provinces experienced temperatures between 7-10 degrees Celsius (13-18 degrees Fahrenheit) above seasonal averages, the ministry said.
Its so-called "rapid extreme weather event attribution system" aims to quickly analyze the role of human activity on recent conditions by comparing current data with pre-industrial data.
June temperature records dating back to the 1870s, when data were first recorded, were broken in New Brunswick province, with the port city of Saint John hitting 34.5C (94.1F).
The provinces of Quebec and Ontario were also affected by the extreme weather.
The study found unusually high daytime temperatures, high humidity, and warmer-than-normal nighttime temperatures, leaving little to no respite.
"The event was much more likely because of human influence on the climate," the agency said. It was "rare to have such conditions this early in June."
The rapid attribution system is currently in a test phase, but will eventually be extended to other extreme weather events such as severe cold snaps and floods, the environment ministry says.
In particular, it will analyze the heat wave currently affecting Western Canada, where more than 50 daily records have been broken in British Columbia and Alberta in recent days.
With heat waves from Mexico to China and Saudi Arabia, June 2024 is the 13th consecutive month to set a record for the highest average temperature for that month, the EU's Copernicus climate monitor said Monday.
It also became the hottest June ever measured, erasing the record already broken in 2023.
Deadly, record-breaking heat wave grips western US
Los Angeles, United States (AFP) July 10, 2024 -
A record-breaking heat wave continued to grip the western United States on Tuesday, smashing records and endangering lives with little relief in sight.
Approximately 162 million people -- nearly one-half of the US population -- were living in areas under active heat warnings, according to the National Weather Service.
It said in a post on X the "dangerous heat" was expected to remain in the western part of the country for the rest of the week before moving eastward over the weekend, warning "the persistent and record-breaking heat is extremely dangerous to those without access to cooling."
Among places that saw records shattered was Las Vegas, Nevada, which recorded its all-time high temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.9 degrees Celsius) on Sunday.
In Texas, the White House declared a federal emergency after the storm Beryl had left some 2 million without power as of Tuesday evening.
"The greatest concern right now is the power outages and extreme heat that is impacting Texans," President Joe Biden said in a statement.
Meanwhile the southeastern United States and East Coast saw sweltering temperatures of their own, with heat advisories and excessive heat warnings in effect from Florida to Massachusetts.
The heat has been directly attributed to several deaths along the US West Coast.
In Death Valley, California, on Saturday, a motorcyclist died of suspected heat exposure and another was hospitalized, according to National Park Service officials.
The area, known as one of the hottest places on Earth, recorded a temperature of 128F (53C).
Further north, four men in the Portland, Oregon area have died since Friday as a result of heat-related illnesses, according to local newspaper The Oregonian.
- Records smashed -
Though the Pacific Northwest is known as being generally more temperate than the deserts in the US Southwest, temperatures there remained elevated Tuesday after the Oregon capital Salem hit a daily record of 103 degrees (39.3 degrees Celsius) over the weekend.
"This is a record-breaking heat wave," Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the University of California, Los Angeles, said during an online news conference over the weekend.
Some people in California, he said, had seen "not only the hottest day they've ever experienced but also the hottest day that their parents or grandparents ever would have experienced."
The high temperatures also contributed to extreme fire conditions in California, where thousands of acres burned in active wildfires up and down the state.
Northwest of Santa Barbara, the Lake Fire burned nearly 27,000 acres (110 square kilometers), prompting evacuations and road closures Tuesday.
The heat wave comes in the aftermath of the Earth's hottest June ever recorded, according to the EU's Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Recurring heat waves are a marker of climate change caused by humanity's use of fossil fuels, according to scientists.
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