New report from World Meteorological Organization predicts record-breaking temperatures
Canada is bracing for a difficult summer as record-breaking heat sweeps the Prairies and federal officials warn that British Columbia faces the "highest and most sustained" wildfire danger of the 2026 season — a threat compounded by climbing global temperatures that show no signs of slowing.
The summer's ferocity is already being felt on the ground. According to Global News, nine Saskatchewan communities broke long-standing heat records this week, with Moose Jaw recording the highest temperature in the country.
An orange heat warning spanned from Saskatoon to Regina, with temperatures forecast to reach 35 degrees and overnight lows near 18 degrees for the following two days.
Ryan Jacobson, CEO of the Saskatchewan Safety Council, told Global News that the body doesn't adapt to May heat the way it might to late-summer temperatures.
"While we typically can think, 'Well, I worked through this in August,' our body might not be able to work the same in May through that same type of heat wave," he said.
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B.C. on front lines of fire season
The scorching temperatures are a grim preview of what wildfire officials say is coming. Corey Hogan, parliamentary secretary for the minister of energy and natural resources, warned at a press conference in Ottawa that "fire danger across Canada is expected to build through July with British Columbia facing the highest and most sustained fire danger,” according to Global News.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Eleanor Olszewski added that "significant wildfire activity" in B.C. is especially expected in July, urging Canadians to "be prepared for the worst."
While the 2026 season is unlikely to rival the catastrophic scale of 2023 or 2025, Global News reports that above-average conditions are still anticipated as the season progresses. Canada currently has 65 active wildfires, with six considered out of control.
The 2025 wildfire season stands as Canada's second-worst on record, according to the report, with nearly 90,000 square kilometres burned as of last September — an area larger than New Brunswick.
Olszewski told Global News that above-normal temperatures are expected across most regions of Canada over the next three months, singling out Western Canada in July and Ontario and Quebec in June as areas of greatest concern.
To bolster firefighting capacity, the federal government announced on May 25 that provinces and territories will be able to request four air tankers, one spotter plane, and five heavy lift helicopters — the first time Ottawa has had federal firefighting aircraft to loan to the provinces, funded by a new $317-million budget allocation, says the report.
Global pattern to climate warming
The extreme conditions gripping Canada are not isolated. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) reports that annual global mean near-surface temperatures during 2026–2030 are projected to range between 1.3°C and 1.9°C above the 1850–1900 average.
There is an 86% likelihood that one year between 2026 and 2030 will surpass 2024 as the warmest year on record, and a 91% chance that global temperatures will temporarily exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for at least one year in that period, according to the WMO.
Leon Hermanson, lead author of the WMO report, pointed to a specific driver: "There is an El Niño predicted for the end of 2026, which increases the chances of the following year, 2027, being the next record-breaking year."
Arctic temperatures over the next five extended northern hemisphere winters are predicted to be 2.8°C above the 1991–2020 average, the WMO reports — an anomaly more than three and a half times the global mean temperature anomaly over the same period.
