Extreme Heat Is Killing Unfathomable Numbers of People Worldwide

A huge heatwave is currently roasting vast swaths of the United States, sending temperatures skyrocketing over 100 degrees Fahrenheit across the midwest and eastern portions of the country.

It's the season's first foray in a grim new annual reality: heat so extreme that it's literally killing people. The numbers are unfathomable, with an estimated 500 people dying every year in New York City alone, and thousands more across the country — in a grim upward trend that's spiked up every year since 2017.

It's a global phenomenon, too. Across the Atlantic, a separate heat wave is expected to kill untold hundreds in the United Kingdom. And things are even worse in the global south; in India, for example, a recent investigation found that official totals, which can already average a thousand fatalities per year, are likely vastly undercounting the true death toll due to bureaucratic errors.

Extreme heat disproportionately slays the elderly and vulnerable, including laborers and those who don't have access to air conditioning. At its most extreme, a "wet-bulb" temperature can cause death in virtually anybody, even if they're otherwise healthy.

And because everybody is firing up their air conditioners when heat strikes, it puts incredible strain on the electric grid and can cause brownouts when the power is needed the most.

"This is the deadliest weather threat we face in New York City — treat it that way," New York City officials warned this week. "Don’t wait until you feel sick. Heat builds. It compounds. It kills quietly."

The United States' current crisis, which is expected to become brutal by mid-week, is due to a heat dome, which are "large and strong heat-trapping lids of high atmospheric pressure," explained Ben Noll, a meteorologist for The Washington Post.

"This one will last around a week, with numerous temperature records expected to fall," he continued.

National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Gehring told The Guardian that the size of area impacted by the soaring temperatures is astonishing this time around.

"It’s basically everywhere east of the Rockies," he said. "That is unusual, to have this massive area of high dewpoints and heat."

Unsurprisingly, the successive years of punishing heat are closely linked to climate change and global warming. A 2022 paper on weather and climate change in the Pacific Northwest published in the science journal Earth System Dynamics suggested, based on patterns in existing data, that killer heat waves would be 150 times rarer if weren't for the impact of "human-induced climate change."

There's not a lot that ordinary folks can do about that, other than perhaps voting for politicians and policies that attempt to ameliorate the worst impacts of global warming.

But to survive the onslaught, there are steps you can take, at least if you have the resources to do so. Stay indoors in an air-conditioned space if possible, watch out for signs of heat exhaustion — like faintheadness and headaches — and drink plenty of water. And whatever it takes, stay out of the Sun.

More on heatwaves: Dozens of Americans Die in Brutal Heat Wave

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