Dire fire warnings issued in wake of record heatwave in Canada, US

The worst heat wave on record that has scorched much of Canada's western territories and the US Northwest eased slightly on Wednesday but officials still braced for more record temperatures and the threat of wildfires. 

Deaths soared in the Canadian Pacific coast province of British Columbia in recent days. Cities in the US states of Washington and Oregon shattered all-time highs for temperature for days.

US officials blamed the heat for a handful of US deaths. In Canada, at least 233 people died in British Colombia between Friday and Monday, about 100 more than the average for a four-day period, the BC Coroners Service said.

Lytton, a town in central British Columbia, this week broke Canada's all-time hottest temperature record three times. It stands at 49.6 degrees Celsius (121.28 degrees Fahrenheit) as of Tuesday. The previous high in Canada, known for brutally cold winters, was 45 degrees C, set in Saskatchewan in 1937.

In the US Northwest, temperatures in Washington and Oregon soared well above 100 degrees F (40 degrees C) over the weekend. Portland, Oregon set all-time highs several days in a row including a 116 degrees F (47 degrees C) on Sunday.

The heat dome, a weather phenomenon trapping heat and blocking other weather systems from moving in, weakened as it moved east, but was still intense enough to set records from Alberta to Manitoba, said David Phillips, senior climatologist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, a government agency.