Report: Heat Waves To Be Increasingly Deadly Threat In Coming Decades

Boaters seek cool breezes on Lake Champlain on a hot
day in 2016.  Dangerous heat waves are expected to 
lengthen and worsen both locally and around the world]
due to climate change. 

Here in Vermont, as previously advertised, we're getting this season's first taste of real summer weather.  The past two days have gotten to 80 degrees in Burlington. 

We'll be in the low 80s today and mid to possibly upper 80s Thursday. 

This week's weather is certainly much more nice than dangerous. Though since we're still unaccustomed to the warmth, you want to be careful exerting yourself in afternoon sunshine this week. 

The very warm weather we're in for today and tomorrow is by no means a heat wave and not the hottest weather we've ever seen in May. (That was last May, when Burlington reached an all time May high of 95 degrees. The previous May record was tied just three years earlier).

Those May stats hint at an increased frequency of heat waves, both here and almost everywhere else, and that is a real topic of concern. 

With climate change, heat waves are getting stronger, longer and more deadly. 

Several studies on extreme heat were unveiled at a recent conference, and those studies paint a dangerous picture of future hot spells, both internationally and in the United States, says Inside Climate News

The research shows that ever more intense heat waves combined with high humidity in some parts of tropical Africa and South Asia threaten to make those areas practically unlivable in future decades. 

Also, major cities in the United States are experiencing longer and more intense heat waves now than in the 1960s. If this trend holds, the heat could overwhelm the power grid, causing electricity failures and increasing the risk of a high death toll due to the lack of air conditioning. 

Heat waves are already deadly enough, says Bob Berwyn, writing for Inside Climate News:

"Globally, extreme heat killed at least 166,000 people between 1998 and 2017, according to the World Health Organization, including about 70,000 during a 2003 heat wave in Europe. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control calculated that extreme heat 'caused or contributed to more than 7,800 deaths' between 1999 and 2009."

Heat waves are not the kind of dramatic, "sexy" disasters you see on the news. Hot weather doesn't cause the type of dramatic property damage like hurricanes and tornadoes inflict, so it's not eye-catching. 

Heat deaths occur much more out of public view, and statistics on heat deaths take time to compile. It's not as immediately reportable as the casualties caused by a tornado or flash flood. 

These heat waves can hit the Great White North, too, with fatal results.  A record July, 2018 heat wave caused four deaths in Vermont, making that the state's worst weather disaster since Tropical Storm Irene in 2011. There was no property damage from the heat wave, but tell that to the families of people who succumbed to the heat.

That same July, 2018 heat wave was blamed for 70 deaths in Quebec.

Those increasingly deadly heat waves could also have global societal impacts. If parts of the tropics become places that are too hot to survive, you'll risk having massive migrations to cooler places. Those migrations can cause massive political and economic upheaval, possibly even leading to wars. 

Heat waves are slow moving, quiet disasters.  Stealth disasters like that need more scrutiny, and I'm glad scientists seem to be taking a renewed look at this hot global killers. 

Yeah, this is kind of a downer post, I know.  We all want to count our blessings, but we also ignore trouble spots at our own peril.