Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: California Moves Towards First U.S. Heatwave Ranking System
Dear Diary. Over the last couple of warm seasons, I have strongly advocated for a ranking system for heat waves, going so far as coming up with criteria and a naming system:
A heat wave would get a name once it reaches my major CAT3 ranking.
Now it appears that there is much more support for a ranking system well beyond what has been suggested by only one old Climate Guy. The state of California is poised to implement a heatwave ranking system next year or within the next few years. Here are more details from the San Diego Tribune:
California moves toward launching nation’s first heat wave ranking system
California’s Insurance Commissioner and others will formally introduce legislation to rate and name heat waves in Los Angeles
BY KASHA PATEL WASHINGTON POST DEC. 2, 2021 8:07 AM PT
The narrative is becoming all too familiar: a severe heat wave builds and, days later, people die. Now, legislators, scientists and a think tank are convening to better adapt to the leading U.S. weather-related killer – by categorizing and naming them in major cities.
In January, California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and other delegates will formally introduce legislation to rate and name heat waves in Los Angeles – potentially establishing the nation’s first ranking system for heat waves. The categorization would help communities take preventive measures and hopefully reduce the number of heat-related mortalities.
Heat waves have particularly impact in Southern California, where they have become more frequent, intense and longer-lasting over the past five decades. By 2050, Los Angeles is predicted to experience an average of 22 extreme heat days – up from six days from 1980 to 2000.
“This is a climate adaptation and resilience strategy,” said Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center that is helping spearhead the initiative. “We’re doing what we can do now to protect people’s lives and livelihoods. And that means being aware of the risks they face and what they can do to protect themselves.”
Los Angeles is one of six pilot locations the Arsht-Rockefeller Center is working with along with Kansas City, Milwaukee and Miami-Dade County as well as Athens and Seville, Spain. The center aims to better improve communication and public recognition of heat wave threats. In August 2020, the center formed the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, a group of emergency-response organizations, researchers, cities and nonprofits addressing the dangers of urban heat.
While the concept is similar to rating a hurricane, this ranking system would instead categorize heat waves based on projected health outcomes rather than meteorology.
“This is, if not the only one, at least one of the very few meteorological warning systems that is based on the outcome,” said Larry Kalkstein, Chief Science Advisor for the Arsht-Rockefeller Center. “That is how many people are going to die, rather than saying it’s going to be 105 degrees.”
Kalkstein and his team are creating three categories of heat waves to implement across major U.S. cities. Category 1 would indicate a relatively low number of expected deaths, perhaps a zero to 10 percent increase in daily mortality. Category 3 would indicate a larger potential increase in the number of deaths – like the Pacific Northwest heat wave in June.
Each category would be tied to specific actions that can help alleviate the effects of the extreme heat. For instance, a category 3 could lead to opening city pools and air-conditioned shelters or even knocking on doors and checking in on the elderly and other vulnerable groups. Local utilities could be prevented from cutting off air conditioning or power for nonpayment during an intense heat events. Other protections could include altering the schedules of workers who must work outside.
Kalkstein and his colleagues are currently waiting for a green light from the National Weather Service, which is the only government agency that could announce official heat wave alerts and categories, to conduct pilot studies. The goal is create an interactive website, accessed by the Weather Service and stakeholders, that automatically looks for forecast updates about every 15 minutes.
“We want to be able, by next summer to try this system out in these different cities . . . then if they’re successful, the goal, obviously, is to do this nationwide,” said Kalkstein.
The team already has permission from local government to run pilot programs in Athens and Seville next summer.
A heat wave originates from a large, three-dimensional bubble of air, sometimes described as heat domes. But not all air masses are the same and can pose different threats. Some are hot and humid, created by offshore warm tropical air. Some are hot and dry, originating from deserts in the southwest U.S.
“We identify those air masses that kill a larger number of people from all causes, not just heat stroke, because it’s not only heat stroke that goes up with mortality. It’s respiratory failure, heart attacks and strokes that go up,” said Kalkstein, who has helped the Weather Service and others develop heat watch warning systems.
Kalkstein and his team have conducted detailed statistical analyses on how meteorology affects mortality in two of the pilot cities, Kansas City and Milwaukee. In Kansas City, they found 41 heat waves that resulted in higher mortality since 1975 by using this air mass approach as well as other meteorological factors, such as the persistence of the air mass.
For instance, their calculations showed a heat wave in July 1980, which lasted 17 days, showed an average mortality increase of 425 percent over the time period – or around a 25 percent increase in mortality per day.
In Milwaukee, they found 31 such heat events since 1975. For a heat wave in July 1995, they calculated an average mortality increase of 212 percent over the six-day event, or a daily average increase of 35 percent.
In general, Kalkstein said the hot, humid air masses and hot, dry air masses are typically associated with higher mortality.
Kalkstein said these retroactive analyses are vital for actual heat wave forecasting and categorization. If an approaching air mass is similar to past observations, the team can classify the upcoming heat wave based on the historical data. The goal is to work with the Weather Service to look at their data and potentially make heat wave forecasts up to five days in advance.
“We can tell stakeholders up to five days in advance, ‘Hey, a category 3 heat wave is coming your way’ and work with them as to what needs to be done when a category 3 heat wave occurs – open air-conditioned shelters go door to door and knock on doors of people who we know are vulnerable,” said Kalkstein.
Kalkstein said three categories would be used across U.S. cities for consistency, but the thresholds for each classification would vary depending on local factors. For instance, the composition of the local population or the amount of concrete infrastructure could increase the danger of the heat wave.
That means these retrospective analyses would need to be conducted separately for each city.
“If one city is basically consisting of a larger proportion of elderly people, they’re going to be more sensitive than a city that has younger people,” said Kalkstein. “Even if the weather’s the same, all those things need to come into account.”
In addition to ranking the heat waves, the pilot cities will also experiment with naming the heat waves. Baughman McLeod said deciding what to name the heat waves is more of a human behavior study and is working with a social marketing firm, who has been helping test names to focus groups. For instance, some rejected the idea of naming heat waves after local flora and fauna, saying they wouldn’t take those heat waves seriously.
“My prediction is that a human name or a set of Greek names actually that reflect human beings is going to be where people land,” said Baughman McLeod. “But we’re setting up a process for answering that question.”
Category 1 Heat Wave Henry may be coming soon to a city near you.
Here are some “ET’s” reported from Thursday and Friday:
Here is some November 2021 climatology:
Here is more climate and weather news from Friday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
Now here are some of today’s articles and notes on the horrid COVID-19 pandemic:
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Guy Walton “The Climate Guy”