Heat Waves Are on the Rise. How Do We Survive Them?

This summer, no continent has escaped extreme temperatures. Heat waves in the Pacific Northwest and Europe have been making headlines, but places all around the world are experiencing record-setting high temperatures, including Antarctica.

Here in Wisconsin, heat kills more people than all other forms of extreme weather combined. The warming climate is making hot days and nights more intense and frequent, and poverty, social isolation, and urbanization exacerbate a population’s vulnerability to heat-related health consequences. How might we design our cities and homes to make them more livable in a hotter world?

First up today, guest host Douglas Haynes discusses extreme heat events and their health effects in Latin America with Rodrigo Pérez Ortega. His recent article “Extreme temperatures in major Latin American cities could be linked to nearly 1 million deaths” describes a major new study about extreme heat and mortality in 326 Latin American cities.

For the second half, we turn our attention to the local situation here in Wisconsin with Larry Kalkstein, who together with colleagues at the Wisconsin Heat Health Network is developing a heat-wave ranking system in Dane County and Milwaukee County to help mitigate the impacts of extreme heat.

Rodrigo Pérez Ortega is a staff writer for Science magazine based in Mexico City.

Larry Kalkstein is president of Applied Climatologists, Inc. and a member of the Wisconsin Heat Health Network.

Cover photo by Thomas Layland on Unsplash