Connecticut Green Living

If you are surviving the "heat dome", that's wonderful, but if you are thriving you must be locked in a meat cooler somewhere. Yesterday , I had to walk several blocks because of the arts festival in downtown New Haven, and became intimately familiar with the 'heat index'. It felt like 104 according to the heat index, which factors in humidity, even though it was in the 90s. There was not an inch of clothing that was not doused in sweat when I arrived at my destination. I then slept a solid 12 hours. Dangerous weather such as we are having is nothing to take lightly. I reported Friday that the CDC documented over 700 annual U.S. deaths between 2004 and 2018. I can only imagine that from 2024 forward, that number will spike considerably. U.S. News & World Report just reported that Phoenix has suffered six heat-related deaths as its temps have soared to 115 in recent days. One hundred fifteen degrees. The only upside is humidity is low (as I write, it is 107...

During 2004–2018, an average of 702 heat-related deaths (415 with heat as the underlying cause and 287 as a contributing cause) occurred in the United States annually, according to the CDC in its "Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report". In it the CDC states that natural heat exposure was a "contributing cause of death attributed to certain chronic medical conditions, alcohol poisoning, and drug overdoses." But it is not 2018 anymore, and heat deaths along with extreme heat, are accelerating. (As if on cue, a few hours after I published this the BBC and CNN reported that 1,000 persons have died from the heat on a Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca.) At least as importantly, areas with high humidity such as ours - particularly over the past several days - are fraught this time of year. The higher the humidity, the less we are able to sweat and cool ourselves. CDC's health scientist Ambarish Vaidyanathan, of the Climate and Health Program with the National Center for Envi...