Heat waves across Canada shattered 60 temperature records this week, and wildfires coast to coast are billowing out of control. That’s causing uncertainty, disruptions and misperceptions for some travellers heading here to vacation.
This isn’t just an issue in areas routinely besieged by wildfires. Fire is creeping into Conception Bay South Newfoundland, just kilometres southwest of St. John’s.
The RCMP closed a section of the Trans-Canada Highway in Newfoundland, issuing strict travel and wildfire bans in the province. Road closures are preventing travellers from outside the St. John’s municipal area from accessing St. John’s International Airport. The province's extreme risk for wildfires map includes the entire island, right in the middle of peak tourism.
Canada is now experiencing the second-worst wildfire season on record in terms of area burned. It’s only second to the unprecedented 2023 season which left 15 million hectares of the country in ashes. That’s more than seven times the historic national annual average.
These climate disasters, once flagged as ‘hundred-year events’, are expected to be a summer 'norm' by 2050. That has travellers and operators looking to navigate a possible crisis for domestic travel.
“This is the new normal and does not come as a surprise,” said Alvaro Silva, a climate expert with World Meteorological Organization. “The frequency and intensity of many extremes, such as heatwaves and heavy precipitation, have increased in recent decades."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change also tagged climate change as the culprit for the lack of snow at winter destinations, increased snow-making costs and a shortening the winter sports season.
In a study from the University of Waterloo last year, researchers said expectations of winter sports travel in Canada may have to change.
“As Western Canada is home to the “powder highway” of ski resorts, visitor expectations of powder skiing versus a future experience of more machine-made snow may result in changing tourist patterns or a need to rebrand the Western Canada ski experience for industry stakeholders.”
While the devastation of wildfires and heat are obvious enough, the world’s perception of the threat they pose could be preventing travellers from coming.
“The biggest challenge we had actually (last year) was how big the fires are by comparison to how big our country is. People are…not understanding how big Canada is and that the whole country is not on fire, “says Beth Potter, president of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
But we do know one thing…crazy record-breaking temperatures are leaving Canadian travellers and international tourists to Canada with few places left to chill out.
At the end of June, Kelowna set an all-time temperature record of 44.6 and Lytton, BC set an all-time Canadian record of 49.6. This week, Miramichi, NB broke a 150-year-old temperature record at 37.6 and Ontario saw 10 daily records broken or tied this week in summertime hot spots like Algonquin Park, Goderich, Parry Sound and Bancroft.
