The heat index reached 152 degrees in the Middle East -- nearly at the limit for human survival

[orthoclad]

Last edited Tue Jul 18, 2023, 07:32 PM - Edit history (1)

Washington Post reports extreme heat index temperatures near the Persian Gulf. The Persian Gulf airport reported a heat index temperature of 152F. The nearby Persian Gulf has water temperatures around 100F, pumping high humidity into the air, as I recently documented in https://democraticunderground.com/1127164242 .

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2023/07/18/extreme-heat-record-limits-human-survival/

In recent days, China set an all-time high of nearly 126 degrees Fahrenheit, while Death Valley hit 128 degrees, two shy of the highest reliably measured temperature on Earth. Phoenix was expected to observe a record-breaking 19th consecutive day at or above 110 degrees Tuesday. And in the Middle East, the heat index reached 152 degrees, nearing — or surpassing — levels thought to be the most intense the human body can withstand.

Such conditions are more than enough to overwhelm the body’s ability to regulate its internal temperature, experts said, and offer a glimpse of dangers only expected to become more prevalent as global warming increases extremes in heat and humidity.
“We know these extreme temperatures are killing people right now,” said Cascade Tuholske, an assistant professor at Montana State University.

...

On Sunday at the Persian Gulf International Airport in Iran, air temperatures exceeded 100 degrees, and the air was nearly saturated with humidity. That translated to a wet bulb temperature of 92.7 degrees (33.7 degrees Celsius), according to data and a wet bulb conversion calculator from the National Weather Service.

The heat and humidity were so intense, they translated to a heat index value that was literally off the charts. The heat index is designed to max out at about 136 degrees, but on Sunday it surpassed 150 degrees on the Persian Gulf.

NWS wet bulb calculator is here: https://www.weather.gov/epz/wxcalc_rh

The human body cools by the evaporation of sweat. If the humidity is high, sweat evaporates poorly and doesn't carry off body heat. Wet bulb temperature, a measure of evaporative cooling, is defined by wikipedia as:

The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a thermometer covered in water-soaked (water at ambient temperature) cloth (a wet-bulb thermometer) over which air is passed.[1] At 100% relative humidity, the wet-bulb temperature is equal to the air temperature (dry-bulb temperature); at lower humidity the wet-bulb temperature is lower than dry-bulb temperature because of evaporative cooling.

The WaPo article makes the point that seaside breezes sound like they'll cool you off, but high humidity from hot offshore water, like we're seeing in Florida, Greece, Italy and the Persian Gulf, is a partner in the process of dying from heat.

For a fictional but scientifically accurate description of a wet-bulb temperature crisis in India, see Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry For The Future. The chapter describing this event can be read here:
https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/the-ministry-for-the-future/
To the best of my knowledge, the author has made this chapter available for reading. Warning: it's horrifying.

[GenXer47]

1. nothing to see here - fill up the tank

We're terminal addicts.

[orthoclad]

3. Large populations live

in regions susceptible to a wet-bulb crisis.
They're already asking the First World for reparations, as Pakistan did after half the country was flooded.
Climate disasters must be recognized as a major national security issue.

[hedda_foil]

2. I read it all. It's coming.

[genxlib]

4. I have read that passage

And it is compelling and scary.

But the book overall is a tough read. I have started and stopped it a half dozen times. The pacing is really off-putting since he changes narrative styles all over the place. I feel compelled to finish it because of the subject but I can't seem to get through it.

I am glad to see the emergence of the Wet Bulb temperature as a better indicator of heat. I spent the first fifty years of my life complaining that I don't like hot weather. But the reality is more nuanced than that since it is really the combination of heat and humidity I hate. I have been in miserable 75 degree days and beautiful 85degree days.

When I flee my current hellhole, I am looking for somewhere with good WB temperatures.

[orthoclad]

7. It's actually an optimistic novel,

Last edited Tue Jul 18, 2023, 07:37 PM - Edit history (1)

despite the opening chapter showing the dire stakes. He jumps around showing the likely impacts on individuals (including a carbon atom), and likely organized developments.

Here's another excerpt reference, on his political musings:

So, is there energy enough for all? Yes. Is there food enough for all? Yes. Is there housing enough for all? There could be, there is no real problem there. Same for clothing. Is there health care enough for all? Not yet, but there could be; it’s a matter of training people and making small technological objects, there is no planetary constraint on that one. Same with education. So all the necessities for a good life are abundant enough that everyone alive could have them. Food, water, shelter, clothing, health care, education.

Is there enough security for all? Security is the feeling that results from being confident that you will have all the things listed above, and your children will have them too. So it is a derivative effect. There can be enough security for all; but only if all have security.

If one percent of the humans alive controlled everyone’s work, and took far more than their share of the benefits of that work, while also blocking the project of equality and sustainability however they could, that project would become more difficult. This would go without saying, except that it needs saying.

To be clear, concluding in brief: there is enough for all. So there should be no more people living in poverty. And there should be no more billionaires. Enough should be a human right, a floor below which no one can fall; also a ceiling above which no one can rise. Enough is a good as a feast— or better.

https://ew.com/books/the-ministry-for-the-future-chapter-excerpt/

It's up to us to arrange this security and equality.

[GreenWave]

5. Holy sheet!

[EYESORE 9001]

6. I like to take a sauna

but I can walk out at the end of a brief session. It must be horrible when there’s no relief in sight.

[orthoclad]

9. This is why heat is

the number one weather killer, ahead of floods etc.

[BeckyDem]

8. I would like to order one

Green New Deal, before it is too late, please.





K&R

[flying_wahini]

10. Maybe global warming will bring us all together after all.

When people can’t live in their own place then they have to move.

[orthoclad]

11. We treat refugees well, don't we?

Can you imagine the chaos when a few million people go looking for a survivable place to live?

Look at recent news from the Rio Grande and the Mediterranean.

Bear in mind that climate change ruined crops in Central America, and that persistent drought attributable to climate change destabilized Syria when people moved from the countryside to the cities. The ripples go a long way.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. And Russia has just clamped down on Ukraine's grain exports which has helped those in these

Climate challenged countries survive.

[Oneironaut]

13. Haha nah.

More like war, genocide, and nukes. Humans are not intelligent enough to not kill ourselves.

[Think. Again.]

14. Thank you for posting...

...the chapter from Kim Stanley Robinson's Ministry For The Future.

https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/the-ministry-for-the-future/