Air conditioning The heat wave was a problem for major cities in the Northwest due to a lack of air conditioning.
Seattle and
Portland had the lowest and third-lowest percentage of air-conditioned households among major metro areas in the United States, respectively. In 2015, a
U.S. Census Bureau survey found that only 33% of Seattle homes have air conditioning (A/C) units, but that number increased to 44% in the 2019 survey following an increase in 90-degree days. The rate of air-conditioned households was even lower in British Columbia despite marked increases over the years –
BC Hydro estimated that only 34% of the province's residents used air conditioning. In order to respond to the crisis,
COVID-19 restrictions were waived for designated
cooling shelters in Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. Trying to stay cool, residents in the
Pacific Northwest and
Alberta rushed to buy A/C units, which significantly increased their prices (some double the normal), created long installation and delivery backlogs, and ultimately made them unavailable in many stores. The pent-up demand for cooling forced electricity consumption to soar to record-high summer values.
BC Hydro reported a peak of 8,500
MW, while several electricity providers in Washington also logged record values. It also prompted many power utilities in the area to formally ask to conserve energy. The
Idaho State Capitol voluntarily turned off lights as a result and in the Spokane area, rolling power outages were used to reduce load on the grid. According to
CoStar calculations, the search for cooled rooms made the hotel occupancy in British Columbia reach the highest levels since the beginning of the
COVID-19 pandemic, while
Washington County, Oregon (suburbs of Portland) hotels reported occupancy levels more than double the rate from 2020.
Infrastructure in
Shoreline, Washington The heat wave strained and damaged the region's
infrastructure. It caused the sidewalks to buckle due to thermal expansion of concrete (57 sidewalks were damaged in Edmonton alone). In
Washington and
Oregon, damage was even more severe, leading to many road closures, including on some lanes of
Interstate 5 and some state highways. In order to prevent thermal
fatigue to
Seattle's steel drawbridges, the city announced it would hose them down with cool water. Public transportation also deteriorated in the sweltering conditions. Trains on
Link light rail and
Sounder commuter rail in Seattle operated at reduced speeds as a precaution against possible deformation of railroad tracks and
overhead lines. In the
Portland metropolitan area,
TriMet suspended
MAX Light Rail and
WES Commuter Rail service for part of June 27 and all of June 28 because the cables from which the light rail cars drew electricity had sagged. Heat-induced rail distortion slowed down the passenger service on the route of the
Amtrak Cascades. Moreover, school districts in
Kamloops,
Sooke (BC),
Ephrata and
Royal City (WA) all suspended school bus services, while
Grant County, Washington limited the frequency of the buses under their management. Many schools changed, shortened, or cancelled their class schedules to avoid daytime high temperatures. On June 28, 15 school districts in British Columbia's
Lower Mainland, including all districts within
Vancouver, closed due to the heat and their lack of sufficient cooling infrastructure;
COVID-19 vaccination sites also endured disruption because of the weather conditions. Similarly, numerous grocers were forced to shut down aisles and halt the sale of perishable goods or use plastic sheets as impromptu thermal shields, as refrigeration units failed under the load. The businesses that decided to stay open often provided
de facto sheltering from heat or converted parts of buildings to cooling centers. In a few cases, workers in California and Oregon protested the lack of air conditioning and staged local
walkouts, and agricultural
trade unions had also noted increased calls to strike. An SMS survey among 2,176 farmworkers in Washington (mostly in the eastern part of the state) conducted by
United Farm Workers, a labor union, reported that almost all farmers did not consider protections mandated by the state OSHA sufficient. Among the surveyed, about two-fifths reported not having had shade, just under a third not having received heat illness prevention training and a quarter of respondents had no access to cool water. After Sebastian Francisco Perez, an outdoor farm worker in
St. Paul, Oregon, died while at work, Oregon OSHA faced calls to enforce safety rules for dealing with the heat wave, which had been first drafted in May. In response, Oregon's governor,
Kate Brown, directed the agency to enforce the safety regulations for 180 days pending permanent implementation. In Washington state, the heat wave prompted state agencies to roll out additional protections.
The Washington Post reported that the federal
Occupational Safety and Health Administration was also considering a set of heat-related safety rules, whose implementation was said to be a "top priority" for the
Biden administration.
Culture and sports Sports events were disrupted by the heat wave. In
Eugene, where the qualifiers for the
2020 Summer Olympics were held, the heat caused evacuation of the stadium in the afternoon and postponement of some events to the evening hours, as the temperature of the stadium's track exceeded . Among other disruptions, a public swimming pool in Seattle's
Rainier Beach neighborhood was closed due to dangerously high deck temperatures, so was a senior's center in
Rathdrum, Idaho and a golf course on
Vancouver Island. Some local concerts and outdoor events were also moved to avoid the heat.
Agriculture Farms experienced serious losses, as the heat wave baked the fruits and berries or otherwise destroyed the crop and the drought conditions worsened. 10 million pounds of fruit per day were being harvested in the Pacific Northwest at the time the heat wave struck. Farmers in
Eastern Washington, facing a loss of the
cherry and blueberry crop, sent workers into orchards at night to avoid the heat in the day. The British Columbia provincial fruit growers association estimated that 50 to 70 percent of the cherry crop was damaged, effectively "cooked" in the orchards. Raspberry and blackberry farms in the
Lower Mainland, Oregon and Washington have also endured losses, with estimates as high as 90% of raspberry crops damaged. Lettuce producers in the
Okanagan Valley were also reported to be struggling with spoiled crops, as were those who grew Christmas trees and apples. In contrast, grapevines in Oregon and Washington did not seem to have sustained much damage, and corn in
Skagit County, Washington was growing ahead of schedule. and farmers were reported to be struggling with feeding
cattle as hay and forage was found to be in short supply. In Canada, the government of Saskatchewan extended additional drought support for farmers. In Alberta, lack of rain and excessive heat saw some grain plants catch fire, which has put the harvest in jeopardy. Further east,
St. Laurent and
Armstrong, Manitoba declared a "state of agricultural disaster" as the heat wave worsened the drought in the region, whose water reserves were already depleted.
Environment Wildfires ,
California, on June 28, 2021 The heat event sparked significant fires across the
West Coast and
Western Canada. Some of the largest fires, such as the
Beckwourth Complex Fire, grew over . Strong winds, which were causing
fire tornadoes in some places, and dry vegetation hampered efforts to contain the fires. This led to road closures, such as the
U.S. Route 97 and the
North Cascades Highway, suspension of airport operations in
Redmond, Oregon, and evacuation of settlements adjacent to the fires. The winds were so strong that residents of
Medford, Oregon, north of the fires, reported having seen ash falling from the sky. In British Columbia, 300 fires were ravaging the province, and the
wildfire season destroyed around of forests by July 15, 2021.
Pyrocumulonimbus clouds formed due to such extensive burning, producing several hundred thousand lightning strikes in one day and further complicating efforts to contain fires. Among the most known fires was the Lytton fire, which started on June 30 in British Columbia. The village of Lytton, which had beaten national heat records in the previous days, was ordered to be evacuated alongside several
First Nations reserves. The town was eventually overrun by the fire, where it caused widespread destruction to the buildings. The fire damaged roads, telecommunication and power facilities as well as the
railway that comes through the settlement; and two people were killed sheltering from the flames. The fire in the settlement forced the closure of a section of
British Columbia Highway 1, part of
Trans-Canada Highway, as well as
Highway 12, which ends in Lytton. Despite deployment of more than 17,000 firefighters by mid-July, the size and number of the fires grew. Almost of forest were consumed by large wildfires, and more than were burnt in the United States as of July 15. In addition to that, the Governors of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho declared states of emergency due to the extreme risk of wildfires. The
Canadian army officials set up a coordination center in
Edmonton in order to assist wildfire actions in British Columbia, which would be directed until July 19. and on
Canada Day in Alberta. In addition to that, Washington and British Columbia enacted state-/provincewide bans on most open fires. Other areas such as Idaho and Manitoba used more localized approaches to burn restrictions. As of September 14, 2021, the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC) reported that 44,647 wildfires in the United States had burned 5.6 million acres of land. Similarly, the
Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) announced that 6,317 wildfires burned 10.34 million acres. Due to the earliness and severity of the wildfire season, the United States and Canada were unable to provide each other with aid to jointly combat fires. Initially, the NIFC declared that the United States and Canada had a preparedness level of 5, meaning it had the potential to exhaust firefighting resources. However, by September 20, 2021, the national preparedness level was reduced to 4 and 1 for the United States and Canada, respectively. Prior to the start of the extreme heat wave, wildfire risk was greatly elevated by existing weather conditions. In April 2021, the North American wildfire season was predicted to be severe due to record drought conditions and high spring temperatures in the West. In May, more than 75% of the western United States experienced drought conditions, with 21% of these conditions being deemed as "exceptional drought", which is the most extreme level of drought. These extreme conditions result in a lack of moisture on the ground that is imperative for combating wildfires. In Arizona, there were 311 early wildfires in the first four months of the year, compared to 127 in the same period in 2020. In July 2021, haze from West Coast fires resulted in air quality alerts in East Coast cities. In Montana, evacuation orders had displaced around 600 people by early August. On October 21, the
national preparedness level was lowered to 1, while by November 5, a total of 48,725 wildfires had burned more than 6.5 million acres across the United States, according to the
National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC). On
Mount Rainier, the heat wave caused the mass of the snow cap to shrink by 30%, and
Washington's glaciers in general have come through what glaciologists say to be the strongest melting episode in 100 years. Additionally, the increased melting of glaciers caused high amounts of runoff to be present within some rivers. The unexpected snowmelt resulted in extensive
flash flooding down the creeks and rivers fed by the glaciers, triggering evacuation orders.
Wildlife and fisheries As the surrounding air was extremely hot, water temperatures rose, which proved to be a hazard for aquatic wildlife. On the Pacific shore, temperatures in the intertidal zone reached up to and more than a billion seashore animals, like
clams,
barnacles and
oysters, died as a result of heat wave, impacting water quality. The deaths also impacted seafood producers, who faced losses of produce as it baked in the heatwave and started rotting. Inland, the population of
sockeye salmon in Idaho rivers was preventatively caught out of water as increasing temperatures made it prone to disease; The heat wave caused an increase in
vibrio bacteria levels in oysters in the Pacific Northwest, causing a record number of people to be sickened from
vibriosis, an intestinal disease caused by the bacteria. As a result, the Washington State Department of Health urged people not to eat raw oysters and other shellfish from the region. On the land, trees in
Metro Vancouver dried up and started shedding leaves; the same happened to the fir canopy in Oregon on the side where the trees faced the sun. In Seattle, nearly a hundred juvenile
terns, whose nests were on top of an industrial building, died when they plunged to the pavement below, presumably trying to escape the heat – those that survived were treated for burns. Scores of British Columbian
raptors, apart from heat exhaustion, suffered from dehydration and starvation. ==See also==