Soaring Saskatoon temperatures raise concerns over health and safety

Saskatoon and parts of northern Saskatchewan are seeing unseasonably hot temperatures this week and that has the city on alert as the heat poses concerns along with the smoke. Cooldown centres are set up around the city for those who need to escape the heat.

For those who can’t get into an air-conditioned place, the city has activated the extreme emergency response plan to help them cope.

It runs until Wednesday, according to Pamela Goulden-McLeod, director of emergency management with the City of Saskatoon.

“That activates our partner organizations, and there’s many of them that work with people that experience homelessness, so that they have access to water cooling locations, but we also want residents to reach out and check in with those around them who might be older adults,” Goulden-McLeod told CTV News.

Those locations to cool down include libraries, Egadz Youth Centre and the food bank. The complete list is available on the city’s website.

“There are also leisure centres, paddling pools, spray parks, lots of our partner organizations like the Friendship Inn have cooling locations, so there’s four pages of cooling options for people,” she said.

For those who work outside, there are also challenges in this heat.

Jakob Philipchuk who works on Broadway taking care of things like flower boxes adjusts his work schedule when it gets extremely hot.

“We take more frequent breaks when it gets hotter,” Philipchuk says.

But for him this current blast of heat is nothing he can’t work around.

“I usually start around 8:00 a.m. but when it’s really hot I’ll start at 7:00 a.m. When I’m watering plants it can get really hot because I’m standing still, so I have a sunburn all the time,” he says. But it’s nothing extra sunscreen can’t rectify.

Temperatures are expected to hit the mid-30s on Wednesday. It doesn’t quite reach the bar for Environment Canada to issue a warning, which involves various factors like evening temperatures staying above 16 and two consecutive days of 32 or more, but it’s still cause for caution.

“It will be close, but not reaching extreme criteria. It is hot. Well above normal,” Sara Hoffman, meteorologist with Environment and Climate Change Canada told CTV News.

The average temperature at this time of year is in the low 20s.

There is a difference when assessing hot weather now, according to Hoffman because of the climate change factor which means more forest fire smoke to contend with.

“You’ll have two compounding factors there that can interact to cause a lot of health concerns for folks,” Hoffman says.

In the case of heat, residents are told to open windows to get air flowing, but the opposite is true for keeping smokey air at bay. Coping methods to deal with heat and smoke are contradictory, she adds.

There is a break expected Thursday, with more seasonal temperatures on the way and possibly some rain.