Canada is in the midst of an unprecedented heatwave, triggering massive wildfires and killing hundreds of people across the state of British Columbia. And the heat is being felt in the town of Lytton, which now holds a record of experiencing the highest ever temperature ever recorded in the country.

The town that sees the summer temperature rising to around 25 degrees celsius, hit 49.6 degrees (121.3 degrees Fahrenheit) last week, astounding for the town of just 250 people nestled in the mountains. For over a week,  the nights in the town have been hotter than even its usual daytime temperature. What compounds the problem more for the residents is that air conditioning is rare and homes are designed to retain heat.

Also read: Canada prepares to use military resources to tackle raging wildfires

The wildfires have caused 90% of the town to burn down forcing most of its 250 residents to flee. The culprit? Something that scientists have warned us would compound the heatwaves, climate change.

Even the arctic circle is experiencing way hotter temperatures, with Russia recording its highest-ever June temperature, rising to 34.8 degrees in Moscow. A weather station in Siberia’s Verkhoyansk, one of the coldest regions otherwise, recorded a 38-degree day on June 20, CNN reported.

Experts have found it difficult to pinpoint the link between all these events but say that is hardly a coincidence.

“The high-pressure systems we’re seeing in Canada and the United States, all of these systems are driven by something called the jet stream — a band of very strong winds that sits way above our heads, at about 30,000 feet where the planes fly around,” Liz Bentley, Chief Executive at the UK’s Royal Meteorological Society, told CNN.

Also read: Hundreds dead as record-breaking heat wave ravages US, Canada

Scientists are of the opinion that if we don’t arrest climate change, these heatwaves may become more frequent, maybe one every couple of years till the turn of the century.

Nikos Christidis, a scientist developing simulations to carry out analysis of such heatwaves said that in the past, without climate change, the extreme heat that would have occurred once in thousands of years in the Northwest US or Southwest Canada can occur every 15 years or so presently.