The Chilliwack
Progress Wednesday
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Ex-Chief returns for summer workouts.
Downtown fire ‘deliberately set.’
Art comes together under the umbrella.
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Doorstep theft prompts call for help Jessica Peters The Progress
Jennifer Feinberg The Progress Do what you can to stay cool, Chilliwack! The blistering hot temperatures aren’t coming down any time soon. There could be another week of sweltering days in store. Chilliwack just suffered through “easily the hottest June in Chilliwack in over 120 years,” according to volunteer weather observer Roger Pannett. The temperatures are hovering at about four degrees above normal. It’s also been the driest June, with a paltry 8.5 mm of rain, since last time it set a record low in 1965 of only re 112 mm of rain, he said. The forecast is for Easily the more hot air shimmerhottest June in ing under the sizzling sun as the unrelenting heat Chilliwack in wave continues to bake over 120 years Chilliwack and the rest of southern B.C. A heat wave is defined as three ~ Roger or more days of the merPannett cury soaring above 32 C. Most of southern B.C. has seen temperature records fall, drought-like conditions, high UV ratings and bad air quality. By the end of Saturday, June 27 there was a new record high temperature in Chilliwack with 34.8 C for that day. That was the fortieth high temperature record to fall in Chilliwack in 2015, said Pannett. With a record high minimum of 20 C overnight and then a max high of 33 on Monday, it meant the ‘mean temperature of 26.5 C on June 29 was slightly more than 10 degrees above normal, and a record for that day in June. Scorchingly hot temperatures can adversely affect salmon, said Dean Werk, president of Fraser Valley Salmon Society. “We’re always concerned about high temperatures and low flow rates in the river,” he said. It creates low oxygen conditions which can hurt fish swimming up from the mouth of the Fraser, and can lead to pre-spawn mortalities which decimate stocks. Anything about 19 degrees C in-river can be down-
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A young man helps another grad adjust with her shoe strap as they wait for the doors to open at the Chilliwack secondary school prom at Prospera Centre on Thursday night. JESSICA PETERS/ PROGRESS
SERIOUS PROTECTION
A unique pair of dogs were quietly snatched from their yard in the middle of the night this weekend. But these dogs couldn’t fight back, or even growl to alert their owners. They are a set of ceramic glazed statues, that were sitting as sentinels in the doorway of Joanna and Gordon Randall’s Chilliwack home. They’ve been sitting there for about 10 years, smiling away at anyone who stopped by. But sometime late Friday night or early Saturday morning, they were dognapped. The Randalls are hopeful that the pair will be returned, as they have plenty of sentimental value. One of the only clues to the mystery comes from a neighbour’s security camera. Activated by a motion sensor, it caught a glimpse of a black SUV pulled up to the Randall’s house, sometime around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. That information has been given to the police, along with a full description of the dogs. But the Randall’s are pleading with anyone who sees the dogs to make sure they’re returned to their rightful owners. Before the statues were placed on the Randall’s doorstep, they sat for 30 to 40 years at Joanna Randall’s mother’s house in Vancouver. “When my mother died, I inherited them,” she said. “They’re impossible to replace.” Continued: DOGS/ p4
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Records fall as heat wave continues
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