Geographically speaking, I am not very far of from karachi, and can tell you first hand - outside temperatures are in high 40s, and we still have not reached peak summers. 2 years ago, 55C was recorded. the only somewhat saving grace is that moisture levels are not that high (<30% for most of the day). But people are dying just of heat strokes.
It’s just warming up. Wait until it really gets hot - like dying hot.
It’s already over dying hot. It’s the humidity that is the important factor. Scientifically it’s known as “wet bulb temperature”, which makes the teenager in me snigger, but the adult which I am terrified.
As I understand it, it’s the temperature/humidity combination at which the human body can no longer regulate using natural mechanisms, eg sweating. Healthy human body temperature is normally ~37C, so being somewhere which is 99% air humidity and a temperature of 40C is effectively like being in a bath of 40C water. No matter how much you sweat, the humidity overrides the cooling effect of sweat evaporating. A high fever temperature is >38C, so our bodies are incredibly temperature sensitive and any significant amount of time spent at temperatures higher than this will start to cause serious health issues and eventually death.
Thanks you for listening to my Ted talk. Sweet dreams.
It doesn’t override the cooling effect of sweat evaporating, it literally prevents sweat from evaporating altogether once you’re at 100% humidity. On the way to 100% the rate of evaporation starts slowing.
Yes, thank you. A clumsy use of language on my behalf but essentially that’s what I was trying to say.
No matter how much you sweat, the humidity overrides the cooling effect of sweat evaporating.
Even worse than that. A living human must have a skin temperature of no higher than about 37 ° C. When the dew point temperature is higher, this means that the humidity condenses on your cooler skin and delivers condensation heat - the opposite of the process of cooling by evaporation. You can see that in a Finnish sauna for hot, short periods (where the body core temperature is not affected because it is short).
But the body has no means to get rid of heat. Over a longer time, you would be cooked alive. This is why high dew point temperatures are deadly and not survivable.
See this table:
I feel there will be a heat wave soon that kills many people. When the power grid fails and AC that can be run isn’t enough.
Also, I think it’s spelled snicker.NM. I looked it up, both words have similar meanings.Absolutely, with data centres now sucking up all the power and the water then I would be surprised if this doesn’t happen in the next 2/3 years.
Don’t data centers put out a lot of heat?
Yep, and CO2
There are several compounding factors that are worrying.
Electrical power is essential for AC, and it is in part still generated by Diesel generators. As fuel is more expensive, the electrical grid can fail at times of the highest load.
Another factor I am thinking about is that the Hormuz crisis and reduction of trade activity leads to a decrease of shipping. Ships use heavy fuel which has a lot of sulfur. Sulfur burns to sulfur dioxide which has white smoke and facilitates condensation of clouds, this increases the albedo (reflectivity of the earth surface). Less shipping means less albedo around the mayor shipping routes, which means more heating. This is a factor that seems to cause some of the extreme weather and flooding in the Mediterranean.
I’d love to see a quantification of how the current shipping disruption compares with the impact of the low-sulfur bunker fuel standard that went into effect a few years back.
I’d love to see a quantification of how the current shipping disruption compares with the impact of the low-sulfur bunker fuel standard that went into effect a few years back.
A really good question.
There was also a slowdown in international trade and pollution from flights in 2020, and a heavy reduction in ship transports in 2008. August 2020 had a short but impactful heat wave in Europe - in Germany, more people died from heat than from COVID-19 that year.
For some larger context and history, check my climate dashboard for sea surface & ambient air temps worldwide including 20+ yr trends: https://globe-viz.oberbrunner.com/
