Heat wave

This summer has shown how quickly high temperatures can pose serious health risks, with record-breaking heat waves claiming thousands of lives around the world. However, it’s not just high and low temperatures that matter. How many degrees the temperature swings within a day – the daily temperature variation – itself poses health risks. Studies have found that days with larger than normal temperature swings can increase asthma flare-ups and hospitalizations for respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, leading to an overall higher death rate than normal. One study, based on data from 308 cities from 1972 to 2013, estimates that 2.5% of deaths in that time could be attributed to large daily temperature swings. Although humans can live in a wide range of ambient temperatures, a dramatic shift in temperature can tax multiple systems in the body, including the immune, musculoskeletal and cardiovascular systems. It can be especially taxing on very young and older in...

Summer 2024’s record heat is creating problems for transportation infrastructure, from roads to rails. New York’s Third Avenue Bridge, which swings open for ship traffic on the Harlem River, was stuck for hours after its metal expanded in the heat and it couldn’t close. Roads have buckled on hot days in several states, including Washington and Wisconsin. Amtrak warned passengers to prepare for heat-related problems hours before a daylong outage between New York and New Jersey; the risks to power lines and rails during high temperatures are a growing source of delays for the train system. It doesn’t help that the worsening heat is hitting a U.S. infrastructure system that’s already in trouble. The American Society of Civil Engineers gave U.S. infrastructure an overall grade of C- in its latest national Infrastructure Report Card, released in 2021. While there has been some improvement – about 7.5% of U.S. bridges were in poor condition, compar...

High school sports teams start practices soon in what has been an extremely hot summer in much of the country. Now, before they hit the field, is the time for athletes to start slowly and safely building up strength and stamina. Studies have found that the greatest risk of heat illness occurs in the first two weeks of team practices, while players’ bodies are still getting used to the physical exertion and the heat. Being physically ready to start increasingly intense team practices can help reduce the risk. I am an athletic trainer who specializes in catastrophic injuries and heat illnesses. Here’s what everyone needs to know to help keep athletes safe in the heat. Why should athletes restart workouts slowly? One of the biggest risk factors for developing dangerous exertional heat illnesses is your physical fitness level. That’s because how fit you are affects your heart rate and breathing, and also your ability to regulate your body temperature. If an athl...

A month into summer 2024, the vast majority of the U.S. population had already experienced at least one extreme heat wave, and millions of people were under heat alerts, with forecasts warning of more ahead. Death Valley hit 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.7 Celsius) or higher for nine consecutive days in early July. Las Vegas broke its all-time heat record at 120 F (48.9 C). Days of 100-degree heat dried out the California landscapes, fueling wildfires there and in the Northwest. Oregon reported several suspected heat deaths. Globally, the planet had its hottest day in at least eight decades of recordkeeping on July 21 – and then broke the record again on July 22, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service. The extreme heat is part of a longer trend: Each of the past 13 months has been the hottest on record for that month globally, including the hottest June, the EU service reported in early July. It also found that the average temperature for t...

Coast to coast, millions of Americans are experiencing sweltering temperatures this summer, with seemingly little relief in sight. For people who struggle to access or afford air conditioning, the rising need for cooling is a growing crisis. An alarming number of Americans risk losing access to utility services because they can’t pay their bills. Energy utility providers in 2022 shut off electricity to at least 3 million customers who had missed a bill payment. Over 30% of these disconnections happened in the three summer months, during a year that was among the hottest on record. In some cases, the loss of service lasted for just a few hours. But in others, people went without electricity for days or weeks while scrambling to find enough money to restore service, often only to face disconnection again. As researchers who study energy justice and energy insecurity, we believe the United States is in the midst of a disconnection crisis. We started tracking these disconnect...