Weather tracker: British Columbia breaks Canada’s September heat record

A spate of extremely hot weather in British Columbia has broken Canada’s national maximum temperature record for September.

On Tuesday, it reached 40C (104F) in Lytton, matching the previous all-time high. This is only the third time that temperature has been recorded in the country in September.

The mercury rose again the following day, climbing to 40.8C in nearby Ashcroft, which breached the record set the day before. This follows an intensely hot and dry summer across Canada, which has fuelled an extreme fire season – its second worst on record. The country experienced its worst wildfire season on record in 2023, when more than 17m hectares (42m) hectares burned.

Smoke from such wildfires have travelled over the Atlantic this summer, bringing hazy skies to swaths of Britain. Extreme heat and damaging wildfire seasons are expected to continue as the climate crisis alters weather patterns around the world.

Meanwhile, farther south, a large and destructive hailstorm lashed parts of central and southern Kansas and into northern Oklahoma on Wednesday afternoon, damaging infrastructure and property in the city of Wichita and neighbouring towns.

Storm chasers often gather to watch extreme weather events in Kansas. Photograph: John Finney Photography/Getty Images

The National Weather Service had warned of severe thunderstorms in the area from 4pm local time, highlighting the danger of large hail and strong winds.

Two powerful supercells developed near Salina and moved south towards Wichita, Kansas’s largest city. A supercell is a thunderstorm that contains a rotating updraught that allows it to maintain its strength for long periods. Strong updraughts such as these can produce large hailstones by keeping them aloft within the storm for longer, giving them time to grow.

Wednesday’s deluge produced large hail along a 120-mile (193km) path through Kansas and into Oklahoma, with the largest stones up to 75mm (3in) in diameter, equivalent to a baseball.

There were reports of damage across Wichita, including smashed windscreens and sunroofs on vehicles, damage to houses and trees, with gusts of 75mph (121km/h) recorded in Sedgwick County.

Hailstorms cause billions of dollars of damage in the US every year.