The worst-case scenarios didn’t predict a Lytton. That’s scary all by itself. That tells us it’s going to be worse, faster, than the knowledgeable people thought.

The US president, Joe Biden, and Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, have warned worried populations to brace for more. Shocked climate scientists are wondering how even worst-case scenarios failed to predict such furnace-like conditions so far north.

Johan Rockström, the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said the recent extreme weather anomalies were not represented in global computer models that are used to project how the world might change with more emissions. The fear is that weather systems might be more frequently blocked as a result of human emissions. “It is a risk – of a serious regional weather impact triggered by global warming – that we have underestimated so far,” he said.

Heat domes, droughts, wild fires – it wouldn’t take many to be a Pompeii for the planet.

In Lytton, the Canadian national heat record was broken on Monday, smashed on Tuesday and then obliterated on Wednesday when the local monitoring station registered 49.6C (121F).

It was the hottest place and it burst into flames…which hints that future heatwaves could trigger multiple Lyttons.