Too hot to live: Millions worldwide will face unbearable temperatures

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The human body has evolved to shed heat in two main ways: Blood vessels swell, carrying heat to the skin so it can radiate away, and sweat erupts onto the skin, cooling it by evaporation. When those mechanisms fail, we die. It sounds straightforward; it’s actually a complex, cascading collapse.

As a heatstroke victim’s internal temperature rises, the heart and lungs work ever harder to keep dilated vessels full. A point comes when the heart cannot keep up. Blood pressure drops, inducing dizziness, stumbling, and the slurring of speech. Salt levels decline and muscles cramp. Confused, even delirious, many victims don’t realize they need immediate help.

-snip-

In the summer of 2003 an area of high atmospheric pressure camped out above western and central Europe. Superheated over the Mediterranean, the giant swirling air mass rebuffed incursions of cooler Atlantic air for several weeks. In France, temperatures rose steadily, topping out for eight days at an astonishing 104°F (40°C). As the heat built up, people began to die.

Many physicians and first responders were away on their annual vacations, and hospitals soon were overwhelmed. Morgues filled up, and refrigerated trucks and food-market freezers took up the slack. Visiting caregivers found clients slumped on their floors or dead in armchairs. (At the time only a few percent of French households had air-conditioning.) Police were called to break doors open, “only to find corpses behind them,” recalls Patrick Pelloux, president of the French association of emergency room doctors. “It was absolutely appalling.” Many of the bodies were not discovered for several weeks.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/too-hot-to-live-millions-worldwide-will-face-unbearable-temperatures-feature

[Binkie The Clown]

1. Here's another article on the same subject

https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/19/eaaw1838

Abstract

Humans’ ability to efficiently shed heat has enabled us to range over every continent, but a wet-bulb temperature (TW) of 35°C marks our upper physiological limit, and much lower values have serious health and productivity impacts. Climate models project the first 35°C TW occurrences by the mid-21st century. However, a comprehensive evaluation of weather station data shows that some coastal subtropical locations have already reported a TW of 35°C and that extreme humid heat overall has more than doubled in frequency since 1979. Recent exceedances of 35°C in global maximum sea surface temperature provide further support for the validity of these dangerously high TW values. We find the most extreme humid heat is highly localized in both space and time and is correspondingly substantially underestimated in reanalysis products. Our findings thus underscore the serious challenge posed by humid heat that is more intense than previously reported and increasingly severe.

[Probatim]

2. I've also read about the 90/90 zone...

Above 90 degrees F and 90% humidity, our ability to cool ourselves drops dramatically.

Anyone who works outside on a hot, sticky day knows this intuitively.

When you run in these conditions, you can see the results. Trail runs that take place in spring and late fall are often 10-20 faster faster than those in the heat of summer. We're just not built for this.

[LastDemocratInSC]

3. Sustained exposure to wet bulb temperatures above 95F can be fatal

... even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature human bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet-bulb_temperature#:~:text=Wet-bulb%20temperature%20and%20health,-See%20also%3A%20Effects&text=A%20sustained%20wet-bulb%20temperature,to%20gaining%20heat%20from%20it.

[I_UndergroundPanther]

4. I got overheated in a non air conditioned

Apartment in Baltimore city seeing a friend. She had no idea her air conditoning went kaput until we both got there.

I have heat intolerance.
Have had it for many years.

It was 101 degrees and horrible humidity out.

Tried to rough it out.
I did until I felt the beginning of heatstroke coming on.


I had to call my roommate who was 30 minutes away to take me home. As I waited I went outside hoping it was cooler while my head was pounding. There were waves of nausea and after awhile I realized I had stopped sweating.

It was around 130 in the morning when I had to make a call to get home to my air conditioned house.

I was so thankful to my roommate ,he had a few bottles of electrolyte water and his ac in the truck was at full blast.

For awhile on the way home I was delirious.
I was so miserable,felt so sick and shivery.

The friend who picked me up was an a emt. He knew what to do.
He saved my ass that night.

I really fear the future.