The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary 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: ‘Stickiness’-A New Way to Describe Heat
Dear Diary. I’ve noticed that as our long-term use of fossil fuels turns up the temperature on our planet, especially in the last decade, that scientists have come up with more inventive ways of measuring heat for public consumption. One more would be in association with a term that old forecasters used to use on air but has made a comeback- stickiness. This new way for measuring heat ads to older measures, such as the heat index, but there are some differences such as taking into account heat duration at a given location.
Here are more details from the New York Times:
A New Way to Talk About Heat – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
SUBSCRIBER-ONLY NEWSLETTER
Climate Forward
A New Way to Talk About Heat
Record-breaking temperatures are pushing experts and public health officials to come up with a new vocabulary to warn the public about extreme heat.
Emergency workers tended to a heat-stricken patient before a rally for President Trump in Phoenix last week.Credit…Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
By Austyn Gaffney
June 11, 2024
You’re reading the Climate Forward newsletter, for Times subscribers only. News and insights for a warming world.
Last month was not only the hottest May on record, it was the 12th month in a row to earn such a distinction. But was it “stickier”?
A study published in May in The Journal of Atmospheric Sciences proposes a new term to measure heat, one that may feel familiar: “stickiness.” Catherine Ivanovich, a climate scientist and Ph.D. candidate at Columbia University and lead author of the study, says that this new stickiness calculation combines several measurements of humidity and temperature. The goal is to determine which factor has the bigger influence on a hot day, the temperature measured by a thermometer or the moisture present in the air.
As climate scientists, meteorologists and public health officials grapple with record-breaking temperatures, they’re also exploring new ways of measuring extreme heat and new ways of communicating its risks.
We know that climate change increases the frequency, intensity and longevity of heat waves. And extreme heat is often striking earlier in the year.
On Sunday, at a rally for former President Donald Trump in Las Vegas, nearly 100 people crowded into cooling tents, sheltering from triple-digit temperatures, and six were taken to a local hospital, according to the Clark County fire department. Similar scenes have been playing out in heat waves across India, in Mexico and throughout the Western United States.
Isolating the geographic and atmospheric factors that contribute to different types of heat is important because not all heat is created equal. In arid climates, like the Southwest United States, dry heat allows for more perspiration, which helps cool the body. In more humid climates, like the Southeast, where more moisture crowds into the air particles, it’s harder for sweat to evaporate, which makes it harder to cool off.
The heat index, which is humidity combined with air temperature, gives us a good idea of what the air feels like outside. But a new stickiness measure could be even more specific. For example, it could help us determine how much of today’s expected high of 97 degrees Fahrenheit in Reno, Nev., is influenced by temperature and how much is influenced by humidity.
The composition of heat matters because extreme humid heat tends to be more dangerous than extreme dry heat, Ivanovich said. “Extreme humid heat is a local phenomenon that needs a personalized or localized way for addressing it,” she said. “It’s not one-size fits all.”
Right now, stickiness is a technical term, but in time, Ivanovich said it could help public health officials be better prepared to keep their communities cool.
The National Weather Service is also rethinking how it talks about heat. In April, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it launched a new tool called HeatRisk. Users can search a map of the contiguous United States, or input their town or address to figure out their level of threat, ranging between one (little to no risk) and four (extreme risk).
The new N.W.S. system considers three factors. First, it tracks how unusual the heat is for the time of year, because hot days in, say, May are often harder on your body than when you’re acclimated to heat in July. It also accounts for the duration of the heat wave, as longer heat waves tend to create more public health problems, and it incorporates how the C.D.C. evaluates a given day’s heat-related hazards.
For example, if you’re in Atlanta with a high of 86 degrees Fahrenheit, today’s heat risk is “minor,” and is distinguished as a yellow level one on HeatRisk. But on Saturday, a high of 98 degrees means the heat risk is “major,” or a bright red level three. That kind of heat could affect anyone without air-conditioning or access to a cooling center, and those without adequate hydration, especially people working in heat-sensitive industries like farm or municipal workers.
Jessica Lee, public program coordinator at the National Weather Service, said HeatRisk is a first-of-its-kind program that combines both weather and C.D.C. health guidance. “It combines both aspects to provide personal, localized information,” Lee said. “It’s important to remember that heat is the number one weather related killer in the U.S. No one is immune to the impacts of heat.”
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is some more new May 2024 climatology (Other reports are archived on prior daily posts.):
Here is More Climate News from Thursday:
(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.)