This looked interesting, but then I saw that Noah Diffenbaugh was involved, and it looks like just more of the same gloom and doom he’s been professing for years. Maybe I’ll stop in at the press conference for their poster to see if I’m right about that.
Humidity May Magnify Killer Heat
Ethan Coffel & Radley Horton, Center for Climate Systems Research
Heat is the world’s leading weather-related killer, but most future projections leave out a huge magnifier: the added effects of humidity. Using new global projections of “wet bulb” temperature–combined heat/humidity—the scientists suggest that by mid-century, regions populated by hundreds of millions could see potentially fatal conditions never encountered by modern people. The heat would affect not just health, but infrastructure, power generation and economies. Large areas could become essentially uninhabitable. The team looks specifically at the U.S. East Coast, India, West Africa and eastern China.
Monday, Dec. 14, 8am-12:20pm, Moscone South Posters. GC11A-1016
PRESS CONFERENCE: Monday, Dec. 14, 5pm: Impacts of Heat Stress on Densely Populated Areas in the 21st Century. With Coffel, Horton and Noah Diffenbaugh (Stanford University).
Has the good Dr been to Florida in mid July? Did the good Dr watch the last World Cup in Brazil?
Humans have a wonderful ability to adapt. Now if someone could only invent a device that when put in motion would circulate the air to increase evaporation on the skin. Perhaps it could be something that could be large enough to move lots of air in an entire room or small enough to hold in your hand for personal use. I would certainly be a fan of such a device. Hmmm. what should it be called?
We humans invented ‘sweat’. Doggies, for example, sweat via their tongues. We do it through the skin. Nearly unique in this matter.
The newest greatest danger to mankind now that CO2 is whipped is aerial irrigation. Big Agriculture has just landed in the cross-hairs (beer makers take notice!).
For me it is lack of wind that makes things uncomfortable, more of my sweat returns to where it came from, this is where wind turbines are useful, driven in reverse as fans.
And you can piss in the wind, too! 🙂
Climate Wimps
I visited the US State of Georgia about 50 miles inland from Savanna once in June. I noticed the folks born in the area did not seem concerned with the heat and humidity. I was in Tucson in June when the temp went to 117° F. Much the same thing – locals adjusted but really seemed not to care.
Both places seemed quite uncomfortable to me – but I’m still here.
My hypothesis would be that Coffel/Horton/Diffenbaugh are wimps from places with benign climates; thusly called climate wimps.
You can send all that hot, humid weather to Canada ( a.k.a. The Frozen North )..we won’t complain !!!
And don’t forget the “killer sharknadoes”. Those are the worst.
In 70s I presented in my research papers — human comfort — that wet bulb temperature exceeding 28 oC create severe heat wave conditions that kill people in Bihar state in India.
Due to Western Disturbances, if the heat wave moves in the eastward direction towards Bihar state in India, with the local humid conditions, the wet bulb temperature goes up. If this exceeds 28 oC, the severity increases.
Dr. S. Jeevananda Reddy
The picture looks photoshopped.
Talk about old hat. The CMIP models have been banging on about increased water uptake tripling raw CO2 forcing for time out of mind. What they failed to consider, and therefore went off the rails, was that much of that uptake is going into low-level clouds, a counteracting negative feedback.
I don’t know where this fits in here, or whether it does, but somehow it seemed “related” even though it is from something completely different:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151209142727.htm–Quantum physics problem proved unsolvable
“…The findings are important because they show that even a perfect and complete description of the microscopic properties of a material is not enough to predict its macroscopic behaviour….”
“Heat is the world’s leading weather-related killer…”
Hmmm. Nope.
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2814%2962114-0/abstract
Humidity makes cold more deadly, too.
Especially when it condenses in sufficient quantity.