Emergency.Blog

Heat Wave: A Major Summer Killer

Heat Wave: A Major Summer Killer

URGENT - WEATHER MESSAGE
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE MOUNT HOLLY NJ
0315 AM EDT MON JUN 9 2008

AN EXCESSIVE HEAT WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 8 PM EDT TUESDAY.

A LARGE BERMUDA HIGH WILL REMAIN OVER THE REGION TODAY AND TUESDAY... RESULTING IN VERY HOT AND HUMID WEATHER. HIGH TEMPERATURES TODAY SHOULD APPROACH 100, THEN HIGHS ON TUESDAY WILL BE IN THE UPPER 90S. HOWEVER, TUESDAY WILL BE A BIT MORE HUMID THAN TODAY. THEREFORE, THESE TEMPERATURES COMBINED WITH A HUMID AIRMASS MEANS HEAT INDEX VALUES WILL BE AT OR A BIT ABOVE 105 EACH AFTERNOON...

Heat is the number one weather-related killer. On average, more than 1,500 people in the U.S. die each year from excessive heat. This number is greater than the 30-year mean annual number of deaths due to tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and lightning combined. In the 40-year period from 1936 through 1975, nearly 20,000 people were killed in the United States by the effects of heat and solar radiation.

In the disastrous heat wave of 1980, more than 1,250 people died. In the heat wave of 1995 more than 700 deaths in the Chicago, Illinois area were attributed to this event. And in August 2003, a record heat wave in Europe claimed an estimated 50,000 lives.

North American summers are hot; most summers see heat waves in one section or another of the United States. East of the Rockies, they tend to combine both high temperature and high humidity although some of the worst have been catastrophically dry. Additional detail on how heat impacts the human body is provided under "The Hazards of Excessive Heat" heading...

-- Source/continues: http://www.noaawatch.gov/themes/heat.php