How To Keep Cool During a Heat Wave

1. Drink slurpees and smoothies
2. Eat freezies
3. Drink lots of water
4. Open all doors and windows
5. Keep the air flowing
6. Wear loose fitting light colored clothing
7. Have someone blast you with a super soaker
8. Take a wet towel and wrap it around your neck
9. Go swimming
10. Streak through the sprinklers with your junk hanging out
11. Do Souljaboy’s superman dance, underwater
12. Add water to anything, your clothes, your bathtub, your mullet
13. Have a waterfight
14. Get sweaty and sit in front of a fan
15. Eat spicy food because it will make you sweat and sweat cools you off
16. Wear a hat
17. Go downstairs
18. Turn off your gadgets and computers
19. In fact turn off any electronic heat sources
20. Find shade
21. Meditate or sit still

According to Wikipedia a Heatwave is:

“…a prolonged period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity. There is no universal definition of a heat wave; the term is relative to the usual weather in the area. Temperatures that people from a hotter climate consider normal can be termed a heat wave in a cooler area if they are outside the normal climate pattern for that area. The term is applied both to routine weather variations and to extraordinary spells of heat which may occur only once a century. Severe heat waves have caused catastrophic crop failures, thousands of deaths from hyperthermia, and widespread power outages due to increased use of air conditioning.”

New York, Boston Brace for Record-Breaking Heat Wave

New York, Boston Brace for Record-Breaking Heat Wave

By Shannon D. Harrington

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and much of the U.S. East Coast will broil today under record- breaking temperatures that may top 100 degrees and threaten a New York power system damaged during a heat wave two weeks ago.

The hot air mass that made Midwest and northern Plains states swelter last weekend, killing at least five people, will bring another hot day there. St. Louis is forecast to reach 101 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius), making it feel like 107 degrees with humidity. Chicago's 98 degrees will feel like 110.

From Washington to Boston, East Coast cities and their suburbs will feel as hot as 115 degrees today and tomorrow when combined with high humidity.

``You can't function very long outside in that kind of weather,'' said Dennis Feltgen, a meteorologist in the National Weather Service's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Warnings of excessive heat were issued in parts of 19 states, the weather service said. Mayors of New York and Boston declared heat emergencies, asking city agencies to prepare to help residents escape possible life-threatening temperatures.

In New York, where a record 100 degrees is forecast for Central Park, emergency management officials will be monitoring hospitals and ambulance calls for heat-related deaths or illnesses, said Jarrod Bernstein, a spokesman for the city's Office of Emergency Management. If it becomes a problem, they'll boost attempts to get people into cooler places.

Con Ed Asks for Conservation

Consolidated Edison Inc., which owns New York City's electric system, has asked its 3.2 million customers to conserve power. Because of cable breakdowns in Queens during a heat wave last month, the risk of blackouts has increased with this week's heat, ConEd Chief Executive Officer Kevin Burke told City Council yesterday at a hearing.

While the utility said it expects to have enough power to meet demands, Bernstein said the city is prepared to crank up backup power generators at jails or other city buildings to relieve the power grid if necessary.

``It's not great to do that for any extended period of time, but in a three- or four-day stretch, it's not the worst thing in the world either,'' he said.

The New York Stock Exchange has backup power that could keep trading open in the case of a blackout, spokesman Eric Ryan said.

Train Delays Likely

Commuter trains likely will be delayed as Amtrak and local transit agencies slow down their trains to keep tracks from buckling and overhead wires that power the trains from sagging.

Amtrak will impose an 80-mile-an-hour speed limit on the 456-mile Northeast Corridor between Boston and Washington when the temperatures reach 95 degrees, spokesman Cliff Black said. ``It is a significant drop in speed so we will see delays,'' he said in a telephone interview.

The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, or SEPTA, which operates public transportation in the Philadelphia region, orders its trains to generally reduce speeds when temperatures go over 90 degrees, spokesman Richard Maloney said.

Warping tracks can cause trains to derail and electrical connectors on top of cars can snag sagging wires and pull them down, he said. ``We're being super cautious,'' Maloney said. ``The policy is to be very, very careful and mindful of the things that heat can do.''

`Cooling Centers'

Both New York and Boston, which is forecast to reach 95 degrees, will open air-conditioned neighborhood ``cooling centers'' for residents who need to escape the heat, and city pools will be kept open an extra hour.

In Boston, the city will make automated phone calls asking residents to check on neighbors.

The hot air mass moving east contributed to a two-week heat wave in California that killed at least 136 people; the figure may rise as the causes of more deaths are confirmed.

Yesterday, the hot air and high humidity left Chicago feeling like 106 degrees and St. Louis feeling like 105, according to the weather service. Less than two weeks ago, Missouri Governor Matt Blunt sent the National Guard to rescue people from dangerously hot homes following a power failure.

In Illinois, the Cook County medical examiner's office reported two heat-related deaths yesterday, the Associated Press said. In Missouri, officials said a 71-year-old woman died in St. Louis during the weekend, and authorities in Oklahoma reported two more deaths that happened over the weekend, AP said.

Wholesale electric prices yesterday for delivery today spiked in anticipation that the heat will lift demand for power to run air conditioners.

Power at the PJM Interconnection, a benchmark for the mid- Atlantic region, climbed $54.20, or 43 percent, to $180.41 a megawatt-hour on the Intercontinental Exchange, an electronic energy market. It was the highest for the region since trading began on the exchange in November 2003.

The heat will continue to affect the Midwest through today before a cold front moves in from the north tomorrow, bringing the possibility of severe thunderstorms and some relief.

Northeast and mid-Atlantic states won't feel that relief until later in the week, meteorologist Feltgen said.

Florida Hazards Watch - Heat Wave

What Is A Heat Wave?

A heat wave is an extended time interval of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather. To be a "heat wave" such a period should last at least one day, but conventionally it lasts from several days to several weeks.

What Is The Heat Index?
The heat index is the "APPARENT TEMPERATURE" that describes the combined effect of high air temperature and high humidity. The higher this combination, the more difficult it is for the body to cool itself. If you work outdoors, it is critical that you remain aware of the heat index and take the appropriate precautions.

B.C. heat wave gets worse

Vancouverites beat the July heat at Stanley Park's Second Beach. (CBC)

High temperatures scorching B.C. reached 40 C in some areas of Vancouver Island on Tuesday, and the mercury is expected to be in the low to mid-30s elsewhere in the south of the province for most of the week.

Usually balmy Port Alberni, about 90 kilometres west of Nanaimo, reached 40 C Tuesday, and the temperature is forecast to hit 40 C on Wednesday.

The high in Port Alberni eclipsed even the frequent provincial hotspot of Osoyoos, in the Southern Interior, which hit 37 C on Tuesday.

'Honestly, it's like almost unbearable.'—Regan Lindors, Sproat Lake Marine Patrol

When it gets hot in Port Alberni, many residents head for Sproat Lake, about 10 kilometres west of town.

"I think that a lot of people will probably be off work and be coming out here because it's like unbearable in town. It's awful. The public beaches are pretty packed," according to Regan Lindors of the Sproat Lake Marine Patrol.

Even with her cool job, Lindors admitted the heat is getting to her.

"Honestly, it's like almost unbearable," she said. "If you're just sitting in your boat, and you're not really moving or you're sitting on the beach, you're just dripping sweat. It's so hot."

Air pollution also worsening

The extreme conditions are also raising concerns about air pollution and sun exposure in the Lower Mainland.

BC Place sits under smoggy skies during Vancouver's July hot spell. (CBC)

Air quality in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley Regional District is forecast to continue to deteriorate due to high smog levels, according to an advisory issued by Environment Canada and the B.C. Environment Ministry.

The advisory also cautions that the worsening conditions are expected to persist Wednesday and perhaps later in the week.

Most of Metro Vancouver and the central Fraser Valley registered six out of 10 on an air quality health index scale posted by the Environment Ministry shows.

B.C.' s Air Quality Health Index

Environment Canada's UV Index, indicating the amount of ambient ultraviolet light, is at Level 8, which calls for extra precautions when outdoors, as unprotected skin will be damaged and could burn quickly.

People are advised to avoid the sun between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., and take full precautions: Seek shade, cover up, and wear a hat, sunglasses and sunscreen.

Retailers report hot sales of fans and air conditioners in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island.

Source from http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2009/07/28/bc-heatwave-alberni-vancouver-uv-smog.html

Exceptional Australian Heat Wave

Exceptional Australian Heat Wave

download large image (644 KB, JPEG)acquired January 25, 2009 - February 1, 2009

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For those who track their local temperatures using the Celsius scale, 40 degrees is a daunting number. In early February 2009, residents of southeastern Australia were cringing at their weather forecasts, as predictions of temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) meant that a blistering heat wave was continuing.

This map of Australia shows how the land surface temperature from January 25 to February 1 compared to the average mid-summer temperatures the continent experienced between 2000-2008. Places where temperatures were warmer than average are red, places experiencing near-normal temperatures are white, and places where temperatures were cooler than average are blue. The data were collected by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite. While southern Australia was scorching, a similarly large area of northern and central Australia was several degrees cooler than it was in the previous nine years. The cool anomaly across that region is probably linked to the above-average rainfall the area has received during this year’s wet season.

Land surface temperature is how hot the surface of the Earth would feel to the touch in a particular location. From a satellite’s point of view, the “surface” is whatever it sees when it looks through the atmosphere to the ground. That could be the sand on a beach, the grass on a lawn, the roof of a building, or a paved road. Thus, daytime land surface temperature is often much higher than the air temperature that is included in the daily weather report—a fact that anyone who has walked barefoot across a parking lot on a summer afternoon could verify.

The Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) called this heat wave “exceptional,” not only for the high temperatures but for their duration. One-day records were broken in multiple cities, with temperatures in the mid-40s. In Kyancutta, South Australia, the temperature reached 48.2 degrees Celsius (118.8 degrees Fahrenheit). Many places also set records for the number of consecutive days with record-breaking heat.

Nighttime temperatures broke records, too. In their special statement on the heat wave, the BOM wrote, “On the morning of 29 January, an exceptional event also occurred in the northern suburbs of Adelaide around 3 a.m., when strong north-westerly winds mixed hot air aloft to the surface. At RAAF Edinburgh [a regional airport], the temperature rose to 41.7°C at 3:04 a.m. Such an event appears to be without known precedent in southern Australia.”

1. References

2. Grant, D. (2009, February 4). Heatwave sets records across southeast Australia.Australian Bureau of Meteorology Website. Accessed February 4, 2009.
3. Australian National Climate Centre. (2009). The exceptional January-February 2009 heatwave in south-eastern Australia, Bureau of Meteorology, Special Climate Statement 17. (pdf) Australian Bureau of Meteorology Website. Accessed February 4, 2009.

NASA map by Jesse Allen, based on MODIS land surface temperature data. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey.

Instrument:

Terra - MODIS

Pacific Northwest heat wave catches many by surprise

Temperatures reached 94 degrees by noon in Seattle, Washington, on Wednesday and were expected to keep climbling as a record heat wave gripped the Pacific Northwest.

Children take relief from the heat in Seattle, where temperatures reached 94 degrees Wednesday.

"One-hundred is the all-time record for Seattle for any day, for any month, for any year," according to Cliff Mass, professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington.

But cranking up the air conditioning isn't an option for many in Seattle.

"We're really not prepared for it," Mass said. "Most homes don't have air conditioning and a lot of stores don't. This is not like the East Coast or the Southwest. Temperatures generally in the summer are only in the 70s. Eighties are considered pretty warm."

Mass' weather blog -- cliffmass.blogspot.com -- warns that heat kills more people around the world every year than storms do.

With current temperatures, evenings don't provide much relief, either. Because of unusually high humidity, temperatures haven't been dropping to the typical mid- to high-50s.

Seattle had a high of 97 degrees on Tuesday, tying its all-time high recorded in 1998. Tuesday's low matched the record of 69 degrees.

The heat wave has lasted several days, which is also unusual. What Mass calls the onshore push -- a surge of air from over the Pacific Ocean -- typically cools the area after a few days. Those winds are expected Friday.

Oregon also is feeling the heat and posting record highs.

It was 106 degrees in Portland on Tuesday, eclipsing the previous high of 101, which was set in 1998. It was 108 in Medford, 3 degrees above the 105-degree record set in 2003; and Salem was 107, exceeding the 2003 record of 99.

Libba Letton, a spokeswoman for Whole Foods Market, said the chain's Portland stores were passing out free water

How can heat wave ocur ?

In the summer in warm climates, an area of high pressure with little or no rain or clouds, the air and ground easily heats to excess. A static high pressure area can impose a very persistent heat wave.

The position of the jet stream allows air on one side to be considerably warmer than the other side. Heat waves are far more common and more severe on the warm side and at times an unusual position of the jet stream places unusual warmth in an unusual place for hot weather, and imposes a heat wave. El Niño and La Niña (opposite reaction to El Niño) can severely disrupt the positions of the jet streams

Large desert zones and dry areas are more likely to get extreme heat because there is rarely any high cloud cover with very low humidity.

Winds from hot deserts typically push hot, dry air towards areas normally cooler than during a heat wave. During the summer an area that has no geographic features that might cool winds that originate in the hot deserts get little mitigation, especially near the summer solstice when long days and a high sun would create warm conditions even without the transport of hot air from other locations. Should such a hot air mass travel above a large body of water, as a sirocco of Saharan origin crossing the Mediterranean sea, it likely picks up much water vapor with a reduction in temperature but far greater humidity that makes the original desert air little less moderate as demonstrated in a high heat index. Heat waves can also come from air originating over tropical seas penetrating far into the middle latitudes, as often occurs in the eastern United States and southeastern Canada. The heat island effects of large cities only exacerbate heat in large cities that endure heat waves because of the weakness of night-time cooling.

Hyperthermia, also known as heat stroke, becomes commonplace during periods of sustained high temperature and humidity. Sweating is absent from 84%-100% of those affected. Older adults, very young children, and those who are sick or overweight are at a higher risk for heat-related illness. The chronically ill and elderly are often taking prescription medications (e.g., diuretics, anticholinergics, antipsychotics, andantihypertensives) that interfere with the body's ability to dissipate heat.^[8]

Heat edema presents as a transient swelling of the hands, feet, and ankles and is generally secondary to increased aldosterone secretion, which enhances water retention. When combined with peripheral vasodilation and venous stasis, the excess fluid accumulates in the dependent areas of the extremities. The heat edema usually resolves within several days after the patient becomes acclimated to the warmer environment. No treatment is required, although wearing support stocking and elevating the affected legs with help minimize the edema.

Heat rash, also known as prickly heat, is a maculopapular rash accompanied by acute inflammation and blocked sweat ducts. The sweat ducts may become dilated and may eventually rupture, producing small pruritic vesicles on an erythematous base. Heat rash affects areas of the body covered by tight clothing. If this continues for a duration of time it can lead to the development of chronic dermatitis or a secondary bacterialinfection. Prevention is the best therapy. It is also advised to wear loose-fitting clothing in the heat. However, once heat rash has developed, the initial treatment involves the application of chlorhexidine lotion to remove any desquamated skin. The associated itching may be treated with topical or systemic antihistamines. If infection occurs a regimen of antibiotics is required.

The 1936 North American heat wave. Record temperatures were based on 112 year records

Heat cramps are painful, often severe, involuntary spasms of the large muscle groups used in strenuous exercise. Heat cramps tend to occur after intense exertion. They usually develop in people performing heavy exercise while sweating profusely and replenishing fluid loss with non-electrolyte containing water. This is believed to lead to hyponatremia that induces cramping in stressed muscles. Rehydration with salt-containing fluids provides rapid relief. Patients with mild cramps can be given oral .2% salt solutions, while those with severe cramps require IV isotonic fluids. The many sport drinks on the market are a good source of electrolytes and are readily accessible.

Heat syncope is related to heat exposure that produces orthostatic hypotension. This hypotension can precipitate a near-syncopal episode. Heat syncope is believed to result from intense sweating, which leads to dehydration, followed by peripheral vasodilation and reduced venous blood return in the face of decreased vasomotor control. Management of heat syncope consists of cooling and rehydration of the patient usingoral rehydration therapy (sport drinks) or isotonic IV fluids. People who experience heat syncope should avoid standing in the heat for long periods of time. They should move to a cooler environment and lie down if they recognize the initial symptoms. Wearing support stockings and engaging in deep knee-bending movements can help promote venous blood return.

Heat exhaustion is considered by experts to be the forerunner of heat stroke (hyperthermia). It may even resemble heat stroke, with the difference being that the neurologic function remains intact. Heat exhaustion is marked by excessive dehydration and electrolyte depletion. Symptoms may include headache, nausea, and vomiting, dizziness, tachycardia, malaise, and myalgia. Definitive therapy includes removing patients from the heat and replenishing their fluids. Most patients will require fluid replacement with IV isotonic fluids at first. The salt content is adjusted as necessary once the electrolyte levels are known. After discharge from the hospital, patients are instructed to rest, drink plenty of fluids for 2 – 3 hours, and avoid the heat for several days. If this advice is not followed it may then lead to heat stroke.

One public health measure taken during heat waves is the setting-up of air-conditioned public cooling centers.