A heat wave is building across the Prairies and climate change means we can expect more

CBC Alberta and Saskatchewan have teamed up for a new pilot series on weather and climate change on the Prairies. Meteorologist Christy Climenhaga will bring her expert voice to the conversation to help explain weather phenomena and climate change and how it impacts everyday life.

A heat wave is building across Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan this week, with temperatures forecasted to exceed 30 C, triggering heat warnings as far north as the Mackenzie Valley in the Northwest Territories.

With climate change, heat waves are becoming more frequent, but how normal is a heat wave at this point in the summer? And after last year's deadly heat dome, how does this one compare?

Heat has been building under a ridge in the United States and now is pushing into Canada.

As a strong area of high pressure builds in the west, temperatures are heating up and will continue until at least the end of the weekend.

Kyle Fougere, a meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada, says the length of this heat wave is thanks to a pattern set up across the country, with high pressure and heat over the west, and low pressure over the east.

"Because there is a little bit of a blocking pattern with that strong low pressure system in the east, it is going to last a fairly long time," Fougere says.

As our ridge of high pressure sets up over the west, temperatures have the chance to get warmer and warmer, he says. 

"This heat builds day after day because these regions of high pressure have sinking air. They have these clear skies. And so you just get multiple days of clear skies and warming."

We should get used to heat waves as we continue to feel the effects of climate change.

While the frequency of cold snaps is not as well known, our heat waves are getting more frequent. 

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report on the changes on climate extremes, the length or number of warm spells or heat waves has increased since the middle of the 20th century.

And that trend that looks to continue. 

"It is very likely that the length, frequency, and/or intensity of warm spells or heat waves will increase over most land areas," the report says.