This summer’s extreme heat broke previous records in the United States, with some locations reaching 110 degrees.
The longest such period in the 125 years that records have been maintained, Utahns endured 16 days of triple-digit heat.
Thousands of people have died as a result of severe temperatures across Asia and Europe.
Despite this troubling current scenario, it is probably only the beginning.
According to a recent research from the First Street Foundation, a “hot belt” that stretches from the Gulf Coast to Chicago would be home to roughly one-third of American adults by the middle of the century.
The non-profit research organisation used a peer-reviewed technique to get surface temperature data by drawing on publicly accessible information from weather stations and satellites.
Then, it predicted the temperatures under the RCP 4.5 global warming scenario, in which fossil fuel emissions peak around 2040 and then start to fall.
“Heat levels that are fatal”
The National Weather Service considers a heat index exceeding 125 degrees, which occurs once a year in around 50 counties throughout the U.S., to be highly hazardous.
First Street predicts that more than 1,000 counties, or an area containing 107 million people, would be in the danger zone in 30 years.
According to Jeremy Porter, chief research officer of First Street Foundation, “we were startled by the formation of that heat belt – these are fatal heat temperatures if there is extended exposure.” The risk of heat stroke increases at 125 degrees.
An important contributing factor to dangerous heat indices is the midsummer humidity that often accumulates in the centre of the continent. Because the body’s rate of evaporation from the body slows down under humid conditions, it is more difficult to cool down via sweating.
Because of this, the heat index, which measures how hot a day “feels,” depends on both temperature and humidity.
Because warm air can store more moisture, the humidity rises as the environment becomes hotter.
The amount of water vapour in the air increases by around 7% for every degree Celsius that the temperature rises.
Because of its location inland and east of the Rocky Mountains, the industrial Midwest is particularly susceptible to a buildup of hot air.
“Since that specific place is not near any bodies of water, it is not shielded from the cooling effect of wind blowing over the water. It’s also at a low level, which traps the humidity “said Porter.
Major towns including Louisville, Kentucky; Kansas City, Kansas; Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee; St. Louis, Missouri; and Tulsa, Oklahoma are all located within the risk zone, which extends all the way to Chicago.
Due to a lack of vegetation and the heat-trapping properties of construction materials like concrete, black pavement, and roofs, cities also experience the “heat island effect,” which causes metropolitan temperatures to rise much higher than those in the surrounding regions.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which was approved by the House last week, is expected to help the United States reach its target of halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but not entirely.
Even yet, it will take a while to bring down global temperatures since many of the impacts of climate change have already been “baked in” as a result of previous fossil fuel emissions.
Undoubtedly, people can adjust to and adapt to hotter climates. However, doing so will need that several communities and governments, who haven’t faced with extreme heat, which is already the main cause of weather-related fatalities, think about and prepare for it.
Physical adaptation to this more intense future will probably be necessary, such as adding more trees and cooling roofs to reduce temperatures, as well as preparation for high heat events, such as keeping an eye on inhabitants and setting up cooling facilities that are easily accessible.
Kristie Ebi, a public-health expert at the University of Washington, told CBS MoneyWatch that there is “so much that can be done — there are many hot-weather warning systems around the world.”
Although you don’t have to start from scratch, it would be nice to have the support of our local and state authorities.