Some facts about deaths due to heat waves

“Texas is a desert region which the locals seem to forget and water shortages due more to the great expansion in population than shortage of rain.”
I am a Texas native so feel qualified to respond to this calumny. Real Texans know the importance of water, perhaps b/c it’s not found here (Texas has only one natural lake, and it’s shared with Louisiana). The “locals” referred to above must be the (legal) immigrants.from the North mostly, who still find it novel that it’s so effing hot and dry in July. We hear them complain and wonder why they came. We remember the infamous summer of 1980, which put the lie to the then-current meme of global cooling. They should have been here for that one!

Here, just outside Phoenix, we’ve been below average; 94 yesterday and last week was only in the 90s. Normal for us this time of year is 105-106F

I’ve lived in NW Louisiana and SE Texas my entire life. We always have to wonder when they start talking about heat waves and show people gasping at 95 deg. F in Chicago, New York, etc. I’m a bit young to remember the 1980 heat wave, but the later ones I remember quite well. I recall many days it reached over 105 in Shreveport and was working outdoors on a roof 32′ off the ground when it was reaching 120 on the roof. Guys were scalding hands and arms on the metal structures. Was it uncomfortable? Heck yes! Did we work in it? If we wanted a paycheck we did. It’s as much about adaptation as anything else. I concur that the elderly and infirm will have more difficulty adapting, but the young that sit inside playing X-Box, Wii, etc. for three months out of the summer in the A/C have no idea of the outdoor summer fun they are missing out on because their parents are scared that little Susie/Johnie just can’t make it in that heat…

I’m in the Texas Panhandle, on the short grass steppe or High Plains as it is often called. We’re located over 1000 m and have been “enjoying” the dome of high pressure since March with temperatures in the 100s. Wallace Stegner, the writer and historian of the US West, referred to this area as “a semi-desert with a desert heart” and this year is proving him correct. We’ve had a fire fatality but no heat deaths yet. As others have said, stay hydrated, check up on people and know your limits.

The pattern in the upper midwest has actually been progressive. Although there have been some warm days, it has passed quickly. In truth, only the SE quadrant of the country has had persistent warmth. The entire northern tier has experienced one mid latitude storm system after another. And meanwhile the West Coast is being robbed of a real summer. Climatic Autumn (granted, early Autumn but Autumn nonetheless) is already here on the West Coast. The Pacific High is prog’ed to all but break down next week.

I didn’t live in TX in 1980 but my first full summer was 1998, which is generally regarded as the second worst summer in TX. That year, we had 29 consecutive days over 100, broken by a 99 degree day, and a total of 56 days over 100. We also had 14 consecutive days where the min temp was above 80 degrees. Finally, over a 91 day stretch, we received a total of .46 inches of rain.
This year is no exception, as we are in day 17 of +100 temps and a total of 23 overall. Forecasts show another 5 before it cools off to the upper 90’s. Long-range models finally indicate a bit of a change around the first part of Aug but we’ll see.

Yesterday The Weather Network claimed record hot Ts hit Winnipeg (home of winny the poo) reaching 36C. TWN typically tack on 2C – other sources report 349- still warm (93F). As a papar boy late 40s-early 50s I recall T reaching 100+ in mid summer almost every year. This kind of July heat has been a long time fixture from TX-NM-AZ to southern Saskatchewan-Manitoba. I remember a few 105s. Yes and in January -35-40 six months later. The hum-a-ditty index and wimp-chill factor hadn’t been invented yet. We just drank a little more lemonade and hot chocolate – yes I’m old enough to remember these antique beverages. ‘Course that was back when men were men and the women loved it. Oops political correctness’ll probably snip this out.

I wish we had some of that heat in Kamloops as the weather here has been the rainiest that I’ve ever seen it and only my raspberries seem to like the rain. Haven’t had any of my patients hospitalized with hyponatremia as is usually the case when we get our summer temperatures of 100+ degrees F (with low humidity it feels great).
While thinking about heat related illnesses today was wondering how much the “no salt” public health message is contributing. Someone who is out of condition physically tends to produce sweat with high Na content and that Na needs to be replaced. I’ve found many of my elderly patients who end up in hospital hyponatremic during the summer haven’t been using extra salt because they were told “salt is bad”. These hospitalized patients are all on diuretics which exacerbates their Na losses.
The other interesting factor in populations with European origins is that 4-5% of the population is heterozygous for the chloride channel mutation that causes cystic fibrosis in homozygotes. This mutation is associated with increased Na losses in sweat even with physical conditioning and such individuals have far higher salt requirements in the heat than those who don’t have this mutation. The salt requirements of affected football players working out in the summer in the SE US were up to 25 gm/day of salt.
So maybe we shouldn’t be blaming “climate change” but rather a clueless public health system that has irresponsible public messages such as avoiding salt. When I used to plant trees during the summer we were provided with salt tablets and I hate to think of what my Na losses were then as I’d drink about 2 gallons of water during a hot day and crave anything salty at night. Air conditioning is the best solution, but pricing electricity out of the range of what pensioners can afford is another way of increasing heat related mortality. Still, I’d rather have the heat than extreme cold.

Meanwhile, the MSM are doing their level worst to hype the Southern (and short term Mid Western) warmth. Shades of 1988 and 1993.

One thing I don’t see mentioned is how few Americans die during heat waves compared to Europe and elsewhere. A big part of that, I think, is because most Americans have air conditioning at home, and almost all commercial and public buildings also have air conditioning.
The Dept of Energy Survey for 2005 stated that 84% of all Americans had air conditioning at home and 78.3% of poor people have air conditioning at home. I couldn’t find stats regarding Europe’s use, but the lack of air conditioning contributed to the deaths of 35,000 people, mainly in Germany, France, and Italy, during the 2003 heat wave.
Like most people in the US, I grew up without air conditioning. We used open windows and fans. Fortunately, with the humidity so low in Colorado, it wasn’t too much of a problem, if we needed to be cool, we went to the movies, to the store, or to the mountains. It also cools down nicely at night, usually in the low 60s.
We got a swamp cooler when I was pregnant with my second child, around 1990 and didn’t have air conditioning in a car until around then either. We used to joke about 2/60 air conditioning – 2 windows, 60 mph.
The new house we bought in 2000 has central air, I love it. Not only is summer comfortable, it helps immensely with my allergies.
It’s currently 90 here in the Denver area at 4:30pm, but the humidity is only 20%, quite tolerable.
We should be thankful that we live in a country with a standard of living high enough that we can enjoy such comforts as air conditioning. The report also said that our poor people have more living square footage than the average (not poor) European, a TV, a DVD player, a microwave, and cable service. Quite a clear picture of the difference between capitalism and socialism, a difference that I would like to see retained.