Title: Humid Heat Already Exceeding Human Tolerance in Some Regions | American Association for the Advancement of Science
Headings: Humid Heat Already Exceeding Human Tolerance in Some Regions
Humid Heat Already Exceeding Human Tolerance in Some Regions
Content: But when a sea breeze blows the humidity onto the hot shore, the wet-bulb temperature skyrockets. "Normally a sea breeze is refreshing because the water is cooler than the air, and that's also the case in the Persian Gulf," Raymond said. " Except it's not refreshing because the water is so hot. It's more like a breeze in a sauna." As the global mean temperature rises, such events are going to become even more extreme, longer lasting and more widespread, said Raymond, occurring regularly in the American South, South America and the tropics. The cities and towns in these places will need to adapt mitigation measures to keep their citizens safe, allowing more activity at night, building underground, and ensuring their most vulnerable populations have access to air conditioning. "It's an all-of-the-above kind of need, because these conditions are already happening and only getting worse," he said. In the meantime, researchers will need to better understand how sea temperature, irrigation, clouds and other factors lead to extreme, localized bouts of heat and humidity, Raymond said. These insights could help better predict when these events will strike and how to mitigate their effects.