US summer heat wave is too much to bear for many. by Jo Farrow
Many western states of the US have been melting in record high temperatures over the last few days. The heat is being blamed for many fatalities. The worst affected region is the desert southwest, including the states of Nevada and Arizona. Las Vegas, Arizona reached 47C (117F) on Tuesday which tied the highest temperature ever recorded. It was the fourth day in a row with a maximum temperature above 46C (115F), which is also a record.
The heat and humidity did not recede into the night either. The lowest temperature recorded in Las Vegas in an entire 24 hour period was 35C (95F), ten degrees above the average for this time of year. Flights have been delayed from Las Vegas airport due to the heat, and pupils from three schools were sent home after cooling systems failed.
Normally at this time of year summer storms bubble up into the afternoon, cooling the air and giving some relief to the heat. However, these storms have yet to arrive in the region due to an area of intense high pressure. When there is so much pressure and downward motion in the atmosphere it suppresses the convection that develops thunderstorms. With clear skies the mercury is able to soar, giving triple digit temperatures to the likes of Phoenix, Tucson, and Las Vegas.
But the scorching heat has spread beyond the western states. Parts of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas were also recording record temperatures and maximum temperatures of over 38C (100F) were also forecast to stretch from Nebraska to Texas. In Denver, Colorado the highest maximum on Tuesday also matched the record at 41C (105F) making it the hottest July day on record.
It is reported that 18 people have lost their lives due to the intense heat, many affected were homeless people. The Central Arizona Shelter Services are now supplying fresh water and air-conditioned shelter to help the homeless deal with the conditions.
Back home in the UK, heat waves are treated very seriously. During the summer of 2003, high temperatures across Europe, the highest for more than 500 years, were linked to more than 27,000 excess deaths. This event sparked much research into the link between heat and health and as a result, the Met Office, in conjunction with the Department of health, announced a new project called the ‘Heat-Health Watch’. The Met Office now issue advance warnings of life-threatening weather to the health services when certain criteria is met. For London, that criteria is when the temperature reaches or exceeds 32C (90F) on two consecutive days.
July’s heat wave in the US has followed abnormally high temperatures across the globe. In fact this June was the warmest on record globally. So can global warming be to blame? Well some scientists suspect that heat waves will worsen due to global warming. Gerald Meehl of the National Centre for Atmospheric Research states;
‘What we see when we run the computer models with future increases of greenhouse gases is that these naturally occurring heat waves are more frequent, more intense and longer.’
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