Millions Of Americans May Now Expect To Experience Heat Indices Of 127F Or Higher w/i 20 Years
Stepped outside yet today? Today in the midwest is what a normal summer day will be like in a few decades.
National Geographic:
In less than 20 years, millions of people in the United States could be exposed to dangerous “off-the-charts” heat conditions of 127 degrees Fahrenheit or more, a startling new report has found. In 60 years over one-third of the population could be exposed to such conditions, “posing unprecedented health risks,” the report says. This first United States county-by-county look at what climate change will do to temperature and humidity conditions in the coming decades finds few places that won’t be affected by extreme heat.
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“We were very surprised at how steeply and quickly the number of days of dangerous heat increased in such a short time,” says Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and co-author of the report “Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days.” “I don’t think anyone appreciated how quickly conditions can change,” says Dahl.
Without any action to reduce global carbon emissions, parts of Florida and Texas would experience the equivalent in days of at least five months per year on average when the heat index—which includes humidity in its calculations—exceeds 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Most of those days will surpass 105 degrees before the end of the century.
The National Weather Service’s (NWS)’s heat index goes up to 127 degrees Fahrenheit. But in as soon as 20 years the Southeast, Southern Great Plains, and Midwest will begin to experience days that are so hot they are “off the charts.” A few decades later extreme heat will affect communities in 47 states, said the report, which is also published today as a peer-reviewed study in Environmental Research Communications.
EDIT
https://climatecrocks.com/2019/07/19/heat-wave-a-sample-of-things-to-come/#more-56302
= new reply since forum marked as read
