This summer has once again brought an onslaught of heat waves that seems to be becoming less and less surprising each year. Increased average temperatures, heat waves and heat-related illness topped the concerns for the Arkansas Wildlife Action Plan in 2015. The Midwest and South have had their share of heat waves last month combining triple digit temperatures with humidity. This summer is on track to be the hottest summer on record for Texas with at least four heat waves this summer. Temperatures well over 100 and heat advisories every day for weeks. In Oklahoma, the extreme heat and drought has led to wildfires and rural water system outages. The heat that has settled across much of the south and central US is extending into the Northeast this week.
What do you need to know to stay safe in extreme weather?
The CDC says outdoor workers, pregnant women, people with heart or lung conditions, young children, older adults and athletes are more vulnerable to high temperatures. Too much heat and humidity can cause heat cramps, heat rash, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke (death).
In extreme warm weather, drink lots of water and stay out of the sun. You can keep cool by using air conditioning, opening windows, using fans and putting cold towels on your neck. If there is a heat advisory in your area, that means the city has a protocol, or planned response, for extreme heat. You can seek relief in cooling stations around your city, usually in fire stations and libraries. Take great care with outdoor grilling, campfires, or smoking outdoors.
Ta ko kwōj aikuj in jeļā n̄an am̧ maron̄ kōjparok n̄e eļap bwil nabōj?
N̄e eļap bwil inabōj, kanooj in buuļ idaak aebōj im kajeon̄ jab pād ium̧win det. Kōmaron̄ kappok jikin kam̧ōļo ilo jukjuk im pād eo am̧ ilo fire station kab ļāibrāre ko. Jouj im kōjparok n̄e kwōj kōmat m̧ōn̄ā, kajojo kijeek, ak kobaatat inabōj.
Last year, the Pacific Northwest, acclimated to more mild heat only in the hottest months, endured a heat dome of hot temperature and smoke from firestorms in surrounding states. Europe also has been experiencing difficult heat waves. This is probably the most obvious effect of climate change that scientists predicted would come around the turn of the century but who would have thought that a wildfire could become so big that they give rise to multiple other fires?
In late June 2021, the Pacific Northwest endured a record-breaking heat wave with temperatures as high as 109 ֯ F in Oregon. Scientists concluded that human-caused climate change made the heat wave more than 150 times more likely. An unexpected phenomena occurred called a heat dome, where air heated by the ocean became trapped over the nearby land. It got as hot as 116℉ in an area where the average high is around 80℉ in the hottest months. Heat waves take a tremendous toll especially in areas unaccustomed and unprepared to handle such hot weather. There were over 750 heat-related deaths and more hospitalizations that summer in Oregon, Washington and British Columbia. It was too hot to work, outdoors or indoors, and the too-hot-to-work days added up to a loss of 11 hours per worker. Scientists don’t expect a repeat of Oregon’s Heat Dome every year but it is something we should expect to see more than once in our lifetimes.
The increase of extreme weather in this century, across the world, has led scientists toward understanding how climate change is attributed to specific weather events. This is easiest for extreme weather events that are closely related to temperature, like extreme heat and extreme cold, also fires, famine and drought. However, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons and flooding are also impacted by the overall rise in global temperature. The National Academy of Sciences stated in 2016 that scientists can determine the degree to which climate change affects some extreme weather events. This is a new field of study called attribution science. Scientists look at the historical record of weather in a certain area and they model simulations – how different is the weather now from past weather and what would the weather look like now in the absence of climate change?