Maritime communities break heat records, some standing for more than a century

A woman carries her dog through a water fountain on the Halifax Waterfront in Halifax on Thursday, July 6, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren Calabrese

HALIFAX — Temperatures soared across the Maritimes on Friday, with some areas breaking records for the day that have been in place for more than a 100 years.

Environment Canada says Saint John, N.B., hit 33.6 C on Friday, beating the old record of 31.7 C set way back on July 3, 1887.

Moncton reached 33.3 C, more than a degree hotter than the city’s previous hottest July 3 on record — in 1911.

Charlottetown cooked at 30.8 C, beating the previous 30-degree record set in 1873.

Halifax’s new record is 32.8 C, the hottest since it reached 30.6 C on July 3, 1981.

Mainland Nova Scotia and parts of southern New Brunswick were under a heat warning Saturday, but that’s expected to lift by Sunday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2026.

Devin Stevens, The Canadian Press