After a summer of heat alerts and advisories, particularly in New Brunswick, Fredericton is experiencing its sixth heat alert in the month of July.
Fredericton, along with Miramichi, Sunbury, and York counties have been under a level one heat alert – dangerous for the elderly and young children.
Thursday was also a steamy day in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County as well, where it felt like 35 degrees, even though it wasn’t quite as humid. However, everyone was noticing the heat and its lingering effect.
“Oh my gosh, will this ever dissipate?” says resident Ann Clark. “This kind of reminds me of what I had in my youth.”
“It didn’t ever seem to be as hot as it is right now, here,” says resident Leslie Evans. “Even going into some of the stores and shops, even places with air conditioning on, it still feels pretty warm here.”
NB Power says it’s seeing an uptick in power use as well, with customers racking up 1,400 megawatts a day over this past humid week, compared to 1,300 megawatts on a normal day this time of year.
The number of heat alerts, on par with 2010 - an El Niño year.
New Brunswick’s acting Chief Medical Officer of Heath says the worst isn’t over yet.
“We haven’t had a level two or level three alert at this point,” says Dr. Jennifer Russell. “We could see that with an El Niño year like this year.”
Dr. Russell says there’s been no major heat related incidents, which suggests people are taking the heat alerts seriously.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Nick Moore
