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Montrealers spend much of the year longing for the dog days of summer to keep us going through the deep freeze of winter.

So when the city sizzles through an oppressive hot spell, many of us just shut up and sweat it out, since summer is as fleeting as it is occasionally unbearable.

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But last week’s punishing heat wave, when the mercury soared about 30 degrees and stayed stuck there for seven days, was a wake-up call for citizens of this winter city. For starters, it was a tragedy, blamed for claiming more than 70 lives across Quebec, 34 of them in Montreal.From what we know, most of the dead were the elderly, sick and vulnerable, who didn’t have air conditioning and often expired excruciatingly and alone, some found only days later because of the smell emanating from their sweltering homes.

It was a stark reminder that summer is not all fun and games. It has a dark side we don’t often see when we experience it elsewhere as gleeful tourists or during the relatively few days a year the sun typically beats down on Montreal. We’ve had hints of this before, namely the sultry summer of 2010 when more than 100 died. But last week’s smothering heat was an urgent warning, a harbinger of a hotter future for which Montreal is ill-prepared.