The next heat wave is coming sooner rather than later...

Each year in Texas, there is always a saying “I wonder how hot Texas can get this summer?” or “ What will be the longest number of days that Texas can get with triple digits weather?” As of July 27th, 2022, Texas itself has had 32 days of consecutive 100+ degree days. The highest recorded in the DFW area was in 2011 with 71 days of consecutive 100+degrees, with 1980 following second with 69 days of consecutive 100+degrees. I remember doing marching band camp in the heat of it all in 2011. Was not a fun time without having the right heat safety tips to help stay cool. The question is, will we reach our all-time high of 100+ for the year 2022?  

Accessed from:https://twitter.com/NWSFortWorth/status/1552668573658763265?cxt=HHwWgsC-rez1l4wrAAAA (NWS Fort Worth, 2022).

When it comes to the monthly highest max temperature in the Dallas area for the year 2022. January highest was 75; February 81; March 92; April; 93; May 95; June 103; and July 108 degrees Fahrenheit. Will it go higher as the month process or will it stay around the 100s?

Accessed from: https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=fwd

(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], 2022). 

When looking at the maximum temperature, national on July 30th, 2022. It seems that on the west coast near mid-Washington, the temperatures are in the high 109s compared to the east coast, where it’s cooler in the state of Ohio at 82 degrees Fahrenheit. While looking at Texas the temperatures are around 100 degrees Fahrenheit. 

  

Accessed from: https://digital.weather.gov/ (NOAA, 2022).

There are consequences when it comes to a rise in temperature. When external heat from our environment and heat from our internal body combine, this can lead to a rapid increase in heat gain which then can compromise the body’s ability to regulate the temperature leading to heat-related illness (WHO, 2018). Even a small change in heat differences can have a huge impact on one’s health. Extreme heat can be detrimental to one's health, especially for those who are vulnerable to the heat. Not only are those sensitive to heat exposure, but other factors such as economic and social factors can put one at risk.

 Heat impacts vulnerable populations such:

• Who are pregnant

• Newborns

• Children

• Elderly

• chronically ill individuals

Other groups/factors that are impacted (Centers for Climate and Energy Solutions, 2021):

• People who are experiencing homelessness

• Urban area by the heat island effect

• Outdoor workers

• Low-income families

• Indigenous and Black Population

Access from: https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat (NOAA’s National Weather Service, 2022).

According to the Dallas County Health and Human Services (DCHHS) 2022, On July 23rd, 2022, Dallas County had its first heat-related death. A female with underlying health conditions at the age of 66 years old. On July 23rd, 11 heat exhaustion were reported, along with 11 other heat-related illnesses which lead to a total of 23 HRI. Age ranges across the board are affected especially those who are 18-35, 46-50, 51-65, and 65+ and prominently males. The impact of heat on health can last for several days or can happen extremely rapidly, which can lead to death. It looks at the direct impact such as heat illness, which includes sunburn, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat strokes, and other HRI which can span several days. When heat exposure accelerates it can lead to hospitalization from cardiovascular diseases, stroke, mental health conditions, renal disease, diabetes mellitus, and respiratory diseases. Heat can also have an impact on health indirectly, such as by changing human behaviors, air quality, the transmission of diseases, health service delivery, and the impact on social infrastructures such as transport, water, and energy (WHO, 2018).

Accessed from: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/heat-related-report.php (ESSENCE, 2022; Dallas County Medical Examiner, n.d.)

In this TED conference talk, Eleni Myrivili who is Chief Heat Officer for the city of Athens, Greece talks about what extreme heat is along with heat waves and how it affects cities. She comes up with a 3 part plan to help with making cities cooler. Out of all public health disasters, heat destroys quietly, especially in cities with the urban heat island effect (Myrivili, 2022). Awareness, preparedness, and redesign are key goals in making cities cooler (Myrivili, 2022). 

What can cities like Dallas, Texas do to help reduce the urban heat island effect?

References:

Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. (2021, September 14). Equity in resilience: Addressing the unequal health impacts of extreme heat. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions.https://www.c2es.org/2021/09/equity-in-resilience-addressing-the-unequal-health-impacts-of-extreme-heat/#:~:text=Some%20physiological%20conditions%20can%20make,especially%20sensitive%20to%20heat%20exposure. 

Myrivili, E. (2022, July). A 3-part plan to take on extreme heat waves [Video]. YouTube. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaKrPDso808

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service. (2022, July 26). Heat safety tips and resources. National Weather Service. https://www.weather.gov/safety/heat 

 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (2022). Climate. https://www.weather.gov/wrh/Climate?wfo=fwd

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstiration. (2022). Graphical Forecasts. https://digital.weather.gov/ 

NWS Fort Worth [@NWSForthWorth]. (2022, July 28). Wondering how 2022 so far compares to the greatest annual 100+ degree days? Well, we have an answer for you! Where do you think 2022 will end up? (The data for 2022 is up until 7/27 and is currently ongoing) [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NWSFortWorth/status/1552668573658763265?cxt=HHwWgsC-rez1l4wrAAAA

World Health Organization. (2018, June 1). Heat and health. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/climate-change-heat-and-health

Extreme heat poses as a threat to society

What is Extreme Heat?

One of the leading threats to public health is climate change, which leads to extreme temperatures such as extreme heat, especially in Texas. Extreme heat is when temperatures are hotter/humid than the average temperatures (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2017). When extreme heat lasts longer than expected, this becomes heat waves. Extreme heat does impact health in many ways, as it can lead to heat-related illnesses which can be fatal if not treated correctly. Heat-related illnesses happen when the body isn’t able to cool itself fast enough, which leads to the individual's body temperature rising faster than normal. This can lead to heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat strokes. There are many factors that put one at risk of developing heat-related illnesses such as heart disease, obesity, high levels of humidity, fever, dehydration, mental illness, prescription drug use, poor circulation, sunburn, and alcohol use (CDC, 2017). Anyone can be affected by extreme heat but it can disproportionately affect more of the population of those who are athletes, low-income households, and older adults. infants and children, outdoor workers, and those who have chronic medical conditions (CDC, 2022). On average, around 702 heat-related deaths occurs each year (CDC, n.d.). Not only does extreme heat have an effect on human health but it also poses a threat to agriculture, droughts, wildfires, and higher demand in using energy. That’s why it’s important to address extreme heat and heat-related illnesses to lessen the impact.

The Prevalence of Extreme Heat

When looking at Heat and Heat-related illness (HRI) morality in 2019 in the United States was an average of 714 with 95 in Texas.

Accessed From: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/DataExplorer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

When looking at the annual number of extreme heat days for the year 2019 from May to September, Dallas County had a count of 116 extreme heat days. With a total of 3108 annual extreme heat days for that year.

Accessed From: https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/DataExplorer (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2019)

When looking at Heat-related illness (HRI); this shows the latest reported (July 9th, 2022 week) of types of HRI with a total of 98 for the year so far. As well as the daily temperature compared to the HRI reports for Dallas County.

Accessed from: https://www.dallascounty.org/departments/dchhs/heat-related-report.php (ESSENCE, 2022; Dallas County Medical Examiner, n.d.) 

Determinants of Extreme Heat

When it comes to the determinants that cause extreme heat, there is a link between fossil fuels, carbon dioxide, heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions, ozone, and temperatures. When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, it involves trapping heat which leads to a rise in temperature. The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions include human activities such as burning fossil fuels which then are used for everyday heat, transportation, agriculture, and electricity (Environmental Protection Agency [EPA], 2022). Greenhouse gas emissions are growing at a fast pace, with a record of 52.4 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2019, and 38.0 gigatons of fossil carbon dioxide (Zhao et al., 2022; Pyrce et al., 2018). With burning fossil fuels daily, there is going to be an increase of carbon dioxide build up into the atmosphere and ozone which leads to a higher earth temperature thus leading to extreme heat.

Relationships with climate change and global warming

There is a correlation when it comes to extreme heat, climate change, and global warming. Global warming is looking at the heating of the Earth’s surface throughout time which happens due to fossil fuel burning which increases the greenhouse gas emissions that are trapped in the atmosphere (NASA, 2022). Increasing the heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels increases the temperature of the earth's surfaces which further leads to extreme heat which then goes into heat waves. The heat waves and combing global warming, actually exacerbate the heat hazards of the high temperatures, having an increase in humidity, increased variability, and increase in more extreme temperatures (Howe et al., 2019; Mann et al., 2017; Mora et al., 2017; Dunne et al., 2013). Not only that but with the exacerbation of heat hazards, it will also spread to areas that have little to no threats dealing with heat (Howe et al., 2019; Mora et al., 2017; IPCC, 2014).  As for climate change, that is looking at the patterns of weather from different climates in a local, regional, and global range (NASA, 2022). As climate changes constantly, it's starting to warm up the temperatures which lead to an increase in carbon dioxide along with heat-trapping greenhouse gases.

What does heat index mean? And what do you do to beat the heat and reduce the chance of getting HRI?

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Heat & Health tracker. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  https://ephtracking.cdc.gov/Applications/heatTracker/

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2017, June 19). About extreme heat. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/heat_guide.html 

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022, June 17). Extreme heat. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. https://www.cdc.gov/disasters/extremeheat/index.html 

Dunne, J. P., Stouffer, R. J., & John, J. G. (2013, February 24). Reductions in labour capacity from heat stress under climate warming. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate1827 

Environmental Protection Agency. (2022, April 14). Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions. EPA. https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions 

Howe, P. D., Marlon, J. R., Wang, X., & Leiserowitz, A. (2019). Public perceptions of the health risks of extreme heat across US states, counties, and neighborhoods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116(14), 6743-6748. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1813145116

IPCC. (2014). Full report part A: Global and sectoral aspects. IPCC. Retrieved July 23, 2022, from https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/wg2/full-report-global-aspects/ 

Mann, M. E., Rahmstorf, S., Kornhuber, K., Steinman, B. A., Miller, S. K., & Coumou, D. (2017, March 27). Influence of anthropogenic climate change on planetary wave resonance and extreme weather events. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep45242?iu=&iap=false&exception=true&cust_params=#citeas 

Mora, C., Dousset, B., Caldwell, I. R., Powell, F. E., Geronimo, R. C., Bielecki, C. R., Counsell, C. W. W., Dietrich, B. S., Johnston, E. T., Louis, L. V., Lucas, M. P., McKenzie, M. M., Shea, A. G., Tseng, H., Giambelluca, T. W., Leon, L. R., Hawkins, E., & Trauernicht, C. (2017, June 19). Global risk of deadly heat. Nature News. https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3322?dom=pri#citeas 

NASA. (2022, July 18). Overview: Weather, Global Warming and climate change. NASA. https://climate.nasa.gov/global-warming-vs-climate-change/ 

Pryce, J., Richardson, M., & Lengeler, C. (2018). Insecticide‐treated nets for preventing malaria. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (11).

Zhao, Q., Yu, P., Mahendran, R., Huang, W., Gao, Y., Yang, Z., Ye, T., Wen, B., Wu, Y., Li, S., & Guo, Y. (2022, May 7). Global climate change and human health: Pathways and possible solutions. Eco-Environment & Health. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2772985022000072#bib131 

Introduction to Extreme Heat

Howdy, This is Texas Lin

Welcome, To Extreme Texas Heat where we discuss heat and heat-related- illness (HRI) in Texas. 

The interesting thing about environmental health is that there are numerous of hazards from one spectrum such as biological hazards to physicals to chemical to cultural hazards. 

Did you know that the hottest day recorded in Texas was 113 degrees back in the 1980s? Within the year of 1980, there have been 29 days straight days of hitting the triple-digits. As for now in 2022, there has been a record of 21 consecutive days of triple-digits. What does this really mean for Texas and the nation? Let's find out...