Too Hot to Handle: How Climate Change May Make Some Places Too Hot to Live
How hot is too hot?
As Earth’s climate warms, heat waves are becoming more frequent and severe. The health dangers of extreme heat have scientists and medical experts increasingly concerned. And for good reason: heat stress is a leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States each year. A recent example is the record-breaking heat wave that hit the U.S. Pacific Northwest last summer, killing hundreds.
Heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the United States over the 30-year period from 1991 to 2020. Credit: NOAA
Extreme levels of heat stress have more than doubled over the past 40 years. That trend is expected to continue, says Colin Raymond of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. Raymond is lead author of a 2020 study on extreme heat and humidity, published in Science Advances.