The Village of Lytton in the B.C. Interior only has a population of around 250 people but in the last two days, it has made headlines around the world.
The small community now has the unenviable title of being the hottest place ever recorded in Canada.
The temperature reached 47.9 C Monday after reaching a temperature of 46.6 C Sunday.
Monday’s record even beat the all-time high recorded in Las Vegas.
For residents, the only way to beat the record-breaking heat was to stay inside.
“It’s definitely quieter than maybe it usually is during the workweek because people are probably staying out of the sun,” Jade Baxter, a resident told Global News Monday.
The Mayor of Lytton, Jan Polderman, said right now he’s expecting a beer from the mayor of Lillooet as the two communities had a bet going about which location was going to be the hottest.
The official Environment Canada weather station in Lytton isn’t even in the hottest location in the village — it’s tucked away under some trees and it’s at least a degree cooler there than the rest of the town.
“We’re generally a little bit warmer than Lillooet and they moved their weather station to where it was the hottest in town too,” Polderman joked.
There were a couple of cooling centres set up Monday but locals told Global News they are used to the heat.
“This is perfect,” resident Bernie Fandrich said. “Think about it as being a little warmer than perfect. But almost perfect,” he joked.
“Just kidding, it’s a little on the warm side.”
Sixty historic temperature records were smashed across B.C. on Sunday as a “prolonged and dangerous” heatwave continued, according to Environment Canada.
Fifty temperature records were broken on Monday including Abbotsford at 42.9 C, Bella Coola at 35.8 C, Esquimalt at 39.8 C and Port Alberni at 42.7.
–With files from Gace Ke