Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Close to 600 people died in British Columbia’s June 2021 heat wave. As it occurred during an abnormally low tide, billions of mussels, clams, sea stars and other invertebrates are believed to have perished. Some of the marine devastation was on Cortes and Quadra Islands. A new record for the hottest temperature ever recorded in Canada was set, but a new study from the University of Bristol found worse heat waves in other times and places. Lead author Dr Vikki Thompson, a Senior Research Associate at the University of Bristol, talked to Cortes Currents about the study and what it says about future heat waves.“The heatwave last summer in your part of the world, in Western Canada and the Western U.S., was a shockingly extreme event,” she explained. “After that happened, we were thinking was that the most extreme heat wave that the world has seen? Have there been more extreme heat waves in other areas? And using models, can we look at how it's going to change into the future?” Our primary aim was to see if that it was the most extreme heat waves and to do that, we needed to find a way to compare the heat wave to other parts of the world.”