Heat waves and flooding: A look at recent severe weather events in Canada and around the world

As the world nears the halfway mark of 2023, countries including Canada have encountered a number of severe weather events in recent weeks from major flooding to wildfires. CTVNews.ca looks at some of these weather events.

As the world nears the halfway mark of 2023, countries including Canada have encountered a number of severe weather events in recent weeks from major flooding to wildfires.

With last year being one of the warmest on record, a waning three-year-long La Nina that is normally associated with cooler temperatures, as well as a possible warming El Nino later this year, could mean a hotter 2023.

But as climate change helps drive global temperature increases, the concern is that warming will make extreme weather events such as heat waves, floods, droughts and storms worse, more frequent or both.

CTVNews.ca looks at some of the major weather events that have hit Canada and the globe recently.

A heat wave in Western Canada this weekend could make existing wildfires worse, with temperatures forecast to hit 30 C or higher in parts of Alberta.

Officials say wildfire smoke and fog contributed to a vehicle pileup east of Edmonton that sent 16 people to hospital.

Elsewhere in the world, more than 54,000 hectares of forests in Russia's Ural Mountains were on fire as of Monday.