Climate Point: Lessons from heat waves of the past
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From unseasonably warm Rochester, New York, I'm William Ramsey.
Welcome to the Heat Dome.
Excessive temperatures are in the forecast for the mid-Atlantic and Ohio Valley in coming days. And some of the northern areas baking under a heat dome do not typically have air-conditioned schools (some students haven't finished spring semester) or homes with reliable AC in the summer.
As I worked in western New York this month, it was clear that even if some American cities unused to heat emergencies have been preparing, many regular people are not ready. Any risk factor like age, health and structural racism can turn a hot day into a life-threatening crisis.
With the heat wave forecast for some regions not historically this hot in the summer, I called my retired mom to find out what they did to cool off before AC. Our families are from Upstate New York and Missouri, in the last century.
Here are some memories from Barbara Ramsey of Plano, Texas, age 78:
WET CLOTHES: She and her older sister on fantastically hot nights would soak their cotton nightgowns in cool water and then put them back on. Standing in front of one large fan that was blowing to the outside, they'd cool rapidly and then go to bed with wet clothes.
SLEEPING PORCH: If you could live in a place with a sleeping porch or make one, it brought you the potential breeze and lack of stifling atmosphere in a hot little house. A little mosquito netting comes in handy. "Being the third child, the sleeping porch was really my bedroom," she remembers. At summer camp in the Ozarks, the mosquito netting collapsed on her once and she got bites all over.
ICING: Wrists, feet and more dunked in small bowls of ice water or ice held to the neck. How much was this really effective? Sometimes the psychological impact is as important as the cooling action. On the way to present-day Kimberling City to see relatives, my mother remembers, they'd take turns with a bucket with ice and water at a park pit stop. Why stop at that particular park? There was an icehouse nearby.
Here's a sampling of some heat-related news from across the Paste BN Network this week:
Heat exhaustion can be tricky. Your body regulates temperature by sweating, writes Olivia Munson of Paste BN. When it is very hot outside, you are likely to sweat more since your body is trying to cool down. But if you are sweating excessively, this is not effective for maintaining homeostasis.
What's the big deal about high heat? Eduardo Cuevas and Doyle Rice break it down:
This heat could set records from Texas to New England and will put people not prepared for the extreme temperatures at risk. The stakes are high: Every day of extreme heat in the United States claims about 154 lives, according to a 2022 study. And climate change is supercharging the risk, as shown by an alarming 12-month run of global heat records
In some areas, this week is the first major test this year of local officials' preparation: "For many, this will be the first heat wave of the year," AccuWeather meteorologist Brandon Buckingham said.
How do you measure a summer heat wave? The National Weather Service recommends the wet-bulb temperature for anyone doing prolonged physical activity outside, whether that’s athletes, outdoor workers, or event organizers, writes Steve Howe of the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester. It factors in temperature, relative humidity, wind, cloud cover and cloud angle to get a realistic impression of the heat stress under direct sunlight, according to the National Weather Service. While the heat index factors in humidity, it’s calculated in shady areas.
Including the impact of the sun into the equation is one reason wet-bulb globe temperature is used by military agencies and the Occupational Safety and Health Association to manage workload.
Read on for more, including what your employer may be able to ask you to do in the heat. Some of the stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to all eNewspapers in the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.