An oppressive hot dome caught the Eastern United States this week, prompting the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue a heat warning to nearly 170 million Americans. Worse, severe humidity makes the high temperature hotter.
Extremely high heat and humidity can be a lethal combination. The body lowers the temperature by sweating, which cools the surface of the skin when the sweat evaporates. Humidity slows down the process and increases the risk of heat-related diseases. To infer the physiological effects of heat and humidity, meteorologists look at the wet round temperature. This measurement basically represents the thermal stress the body experiences in hot, humid conditions. It is also a key indicator of understanding human ability to survive in changing climates.
University of California – University of Berkeley – David Romps, professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of Berkeley, told Gizmodo in an email. Similar to a sweaty person, a wet bubble thermometer cools itself by evaporating water, “but a wet bubble thermometer is not like a person in some important ways,” he explains.
Humans will generate heat in their bodies and must be emitted into the air. “So all other equals will be warmer than wet players.” It’s hard to maintain a safe internal temperature when the wet bulb temperature is close to 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) (average human body temperature). He explained that this could lead to severe heat-related illness and even death.
Experts have long believed that a wet glue temperature of 35 degrees Celsius (equal to 95 degrees Fahrenheit at 100% humidity or 115 degrees Fahrenheit at 50% humidity) is the threshold for the human body to no longer cool itself. However, in recent years, researchers have found evidence that this threshold is actually much lower.
“According to our research, the wet bulb temperature is about 87 degrees Fahrenheit [30.6 degrees Celsius] At 100% humidity is a critical threshold, if humans are exposed to these conditions for several hours at a time, then doctoral candidate Kat Fisher of Payne State told Gizmodo in an email.
Taking into account the wet bulb temperature, wind speed, wind speed, cloud cover and the angle of the sun, the wet bulb temperature (WBGT), which is a comprehensive measure of the thermal stress of direct sunlight. On Tuesday, July 29, the NWS reported WBGT values in the 1980s, to much of the eastern U.S., especially in the 1990s low 1990s Fahrenheit (from the 1920s to the mid-1930s).
According to the NWS, WBGT values are extreme above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius) and can cause thermal stress in just 15 minutes while working or exercising directly in the sun. Weather officials expect these conditions to last until Wednesday, July 29, before the hot dome dissipates later this week.
In the long run, dangerous wet bubble temperature events will remain here. “Actually caused global warming is pushing wet round temperatures, even pushing healthy people to their physiological limitations. This is true,” Roms said. He explained that the body cannot physically withstand internal temperatures around or above its internal temperatures.
As the atmosphere warms, it can retain more moisture, thereby increasing the frequency and intensity of extremely wet circular temperatures. According to NASA, climate models suggest that wet bulb temperatures may be observed regularly up to 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) in some parts of the world over the next 30 to 50 years. Midwest states such as Arkansas, Missouri and Iowa may reach critical wet bulb temperature limits within 50 years.
“For the 300,000 years of our species, there is no need to endure this wet round temperature because during this time they may never have happened as normal weather,” Roms said. “Global warming is changing, and it’s fast.”
ABC News reports that extreme heat is already the deadliest weather hazard in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data suggests that about 2,000 Americans die from heat-related causes each year. Some experts believe the death toll is seriously underestimated. Understanding the limitations of human survival in a warm world is actually a matter of life and death. There is an urgent need to adapt to infrastructure, public health systems and extreme heat responses to adapt to changing climates.
