Vancouver opens overnight cooling centre as heat alert rises to 'extreme'

VANCOUVER -

The City of Vancouver has taken the unprecedented step of opening overnight cooling centres as much of the province swelters through another heat wave.

Thursday night, health officials raised the warning to Extreme Heat Alert, or Level 2.

Heat records were also broken Thursday.

In response, the City of Vancouver extended cooling centre hours and, for the first time, implemented an overnight cooling centre at the Gathering Centre Community Place, in downtown Vancouver. There are plans to open two other centres for overnight use on Friday if there is demand.

New Westminster is also offering overnight relief. Century House on Eighth Street is operating 24/7 during the heatwave and is also accepting pets.

So far in August, paramedics have responded to 47 heat-related calls, according to B.C. Emergency Health Services. Twelve calls were recorded on Thursday.

In June, when B.C. experienced the record-breaking heat dome, there were 829 calls to paramedics and 570 deaths. The B.C. Coroners Service says it’s too soon to determine if the current heatwave has led to any deaths.

Daytime highs for Metro Vancouver are expected to range from 29 to 35 C on Friday, but Environment Canada says wildfire smoke will be the “wildcard” as it moves west.

“Either you have extreme heat or you have incredibly dense smoke, or probably a mixture of the two,” said meteorologist Armel Castellan. “(The smoke) is thick enough that some of the sun’s ray is bouncing off and it is being either absorbed into the smoke or bouncing back up into space.”

Castellan said thick smoke can reduce temperatures by as much as 10 degrees.