The calendar says that summer has just begun. But for many Americans, it seems that summer began a month early. On June 14, an astonishing 120 million of us were covered by extreme heat alerts.
Thanks to climate change, the past seven years have, in succession, been the seven hottest years on record. Last summer was tied for the hottest on record with the Dust Bowl year of 1936.
This summer may be even hotter. In the first part of June, Phoenix hit 114 degrees, while Las Vegas reached 109. The list of cities that dealt with temperatures topping 100 degrees includes Austin and San Antonio (105); Lincoln (103) and North Platte, Neb. (108); Columbia, S.C. (103); and St. Louis (100).
As global average surface temperatures increase, the probability of warm extremes, often referred to as “long tail" events, skyrockets. The average number of heat waves in the United States has tripled, from two per year in the 1960s to six in the 2010s, according to the National Climate Assessment. The heat wave season is also 45 days longer than it was in the 1960s.
If global warming is not slowed, the hottest heat wave many people have ever experienced will simply be their new summertime norm, Matthew Huber, a climate scientist at Purdue University, told Raymond Zhong of The New York Times. “It’s not going to be something you can escape.”
And heat kills. In fact, heat ranks as the top weather-related killer in the U.S. on average each year, killing more than 600 people annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). That’s a number that is bound to increase. Since 2017, 570 people have died of heat-related causes in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, up from 241 heat-related deaths during the previous five years.
“We all know that when flash flooding or thunderstorms or hurricanes are coming, we better take care of ourselves,” Erika Bandala told The Washington Post. “But not really about extreme heat. It’s probably one of the most under-considered risks that we can be facing.” Bandala is an assistant research professor of environmental science at the Desert Research Institute in Las Vegas.
Effectively, under steam-bath conditions, our bodies absorb heat from the environment faster than we can sweat to cool ourselves down. And “unfortunately for humans, we don’t pump out a lot more sweat to keep up,” Dr. W. Larry Kenney, a professor of physiology at Pennsylvania State University, explained to The New York Times’ Zhong.
Heat’s victims often die alone, in their own homes. Apart from heatstroke, Zhong reported, it can cause cardiovascular collapse and kidney failure. It damages our organs and cells, even our DNA. Its harms are multiplied in the very old and very young, and in people with high blood pressure, asthma, and other conditions.
When the mercury is high, we aren’t as effective at work. Our thinking and motor functions are impaired. Excessive heat is also associated with greater crime, anxiety, depression and suicide.
Children’s education is taking a hit, as well. Many school buildings lack air conditioning and are closing more often just before and after summer vacation. Heat inhibits learning. In a study published in the journal Nature Human Behavior in 2020, researchers found that students scored worse on standardized exams for every additional day of 80-degree or higher temperatures.
On top of all that, the combination of gusty winds, low humidity and drought — intensified by recent record-breaking temperatures — has spurred dangerous fire conditions in the West. The wildfire season has become longer in recent years and the fires, more intense.
Animals are suffering, too. Extreme heat and humidity in Kansas have killed “thousands” of cattle across the state in recent weeks, The Washington Examiner reported..
Of course, the U.S. is not alone. European heat waves have been creating plenty of headlines. And since the beginning of March, an unprecedented heat wave has gripped India and Pakistan, affecting more than a billion people on the subcontinent, Zoha Tunio reported in Inside Climate News.
Jacobabad, a landlocked city in Pakistan’s Sindh Province 340 miles north of Karachi, is pushing the limits of human livability on a warming planet. In the spring, Jacobabad endured temperatures in excess of 100 degrees for 51 straight days. In May, the temperature hit 123.8 degrees.
How much more heat must we endure before Congress takes action?