CBS News: Heat Stress, Heat Domes, and Heat Deaths
“Extreme heat is the climate disaster that kills the most people, in fact, it kills more people than all the other disasters combined.”
When you need Oven Mitts to touch your steering wheel, – it’s hot. Phoenix remains the fastest growing city in the US. But it’s not just Arizona – Winter in the Southern Hemisphere is blowing past records.
It’s the middle of winter in South America, but that hasn’t kept the heat away in Chile, Argentina and surrounding locations. Multiple spells of oddly hot weather have roasted the region in recent weeks. The latest spell early this week has become the most intense, pushing the mercury above 100 degrees Fahrenheit, while setting an August record for Chile.
In Buenos Aires, where the average high on Aug. 1 is 58 degrees (14 Celsius), it surpassed 86 (30 Celsius) on Tuesday.
“South America is living one of the extreme events the world has ever seen,” weather historian Maximiliano Herrera tweeted, adding, “This event is rewriting all climatic books.”
The most extreme conditions have occurred in the southern half of the continent, and particularly in the Andes Mountains region.
Temperatures Tuesday rose past 95 degrees (35 Celsius) in numerous locations, including at elevations of about 3,500 to 4,500 feet in the Andes foothills. In some cases, the temperature crested above 100 degrees (38 Celsius) after leaping from morning lows in the 30s and 40s (single-digits Celsius).
Some places have even reached all-time maximums — surpassing summer temperatures, even though it is winter. This has occurred in locations with 20 to 30 years of climate data available, showing how exceptional this heat is compared with recent decades.
Like many other portions of the globe, record heat has visited parts of South America repeatedly in recent weeks. The big difference from its northern neighbors is that it’s winter there.
Parts of Brazil began to bake in mid-July, establishing record highs for the month as temperatures rose to at least 100 degrees (upper 30s Celsius). There was another spell of unusual heat during the third week of the month, which brought a slew of July records to Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay.
A powerful zone of high pressure, or heat dome, centered over Paraguay is dominating the weather. It extends east to west across the south-central part of the continent.
Abnormally warm winter temperatures have also been observed in Australia, Africa and some island regions. These hot and persistent high-pressure zones have become more probable with climate change, according to scientists.
August in the Southern Hemisphere is equivalent to February in the Northern Hemisphere. It shouldn’t be hot, let alone scorching.
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Below, Phoenix Meteorologist Amber Sullins on heat as “the number one weather related killer, and it’s getting worse”.
“For years, Austin’s public transit agency has tried to put a shelter at any stop with at least 50 bus boardings a day — a standard practice among transit agencies. Under that rule, only about 20 stops lacked shelters — mostly because of space limitations, CapMetro staff said.
But the CapMetro board changed the agency’s service standards last month to make it easier for stops to get a shelter. Now, bus stops where people have to wait longer will be prioritized, even if there are fewer than 15 boardings a day.
This change in policy and the new, more versatile structures means at least 125 stops will get shelters. The rest of the new shelters will replace old ones that have seen better days.”
The new shelters are easier to fit into tight spaces, and they’re cheaper to install, but some are replacing the aging but bigger shelters (that required fresh concrete pours to install).
To quote the famous philosopher Roseanne Roseannadanna,
“It’s always something.”
Unshaded bus stops are an embarrassment to any city in the sunbelt. Austin still has work to do on that front:
From https://www.kut.org/transportation/2023-07-19/capmetro-new-bus-shelters-heat
“For years, Austin’s public transit agency has tried to put a shelter at any stop with at least 50 bus boardings a day — a standard practice among transit agencies. Under that rule, only about 20 stops lacked shelters — mostly because of space limitations, CapMetro staff said.
But the CapMetro board changed the agency’s service standards last month to make it easier for stops to get a shelter. Now, bus stops where people have to wait longer will be prioritized, even if there are fewer than 15 boardings a day.
This change in policy and the new, more versatile structures means at least 125 stops will get shelters. The rest of the new shelters will replace old ones that have seen better days.”
The new shelters are easier to fit into tight spaces, and they’re cheaper to install, but some are replacing the aging but bigger shelters (that required fresh concrete pours to install).
To quote the famous philosopher Roseanne Roseannadanna,
“It’s always something.”