Heat Waves Could Soon Have Names (axios.com) 97
There's a growing effort to name and categorize heat waves the way we do hurricanes -- to call attention to their significance, alert people to dangerous temperatures and prod public officials into action. From a report: Excessive heat -- which hits low-income communities the hardest -- doesn't lend itself to dramatic TV coverage, so people sometimes underestimate the risk. Proponents of a more formal public warning system say it could save lives and trigger measures like opening community cooling stations and asking people to stay indoors. This month Seville, Spain is poised to become the first city to start naming severe heat waves. Five other cities -- Los Angeles; Miami; Milwaukee; Kansas City, Missouri; and Athens -- have also started piloting a similar initiative, using weather data and public health criteria to categorize heat waves. They'll use a three-category system that organizers want to standardize. Each city's system will be tailored to its particular climate. A "category three" heat wave in L.A., for example, will look and feel quite different from the same designation in Milwaukee.
India being the Home of HeatWaves (Score:3)
I await being dried by Heatwave Rajesh, killed in a heatwave named Kamla, and my bones baked to dust by Sri.
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Re: India being the Home of HeatWaves (Score:2)
How about Shithead, that will be my fav.
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totes nrml (Score:2, Interesting)
The Keeling Curve is still accelerating. 420ppm CO2, highest in a million years. Good luck "adapting" in your "cooling station".
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Please try to keep up, that was the effect of La Nina. Anyhow, global warming doesn't mean everywhere gets warmer. It does tend to make for more weather extremes. And if you wish to concentrate on warming is a small place, look at Greenland. If it melts significantly, and it on the way, expect to see sea rise measured in feet.
For another local effect of global warming look at the Great Salt Lake. Soon it will evaporate completely and become a producer of toxic dust (see Aral Sea for how that turns out). The
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Yep,
Keep moving that target. You're going to hit it one of these millenia.
This is stupid (Score:2, Insightful)
Because cities aren't going through the proper channels they should let the weather agency do the naming and categorizing because they have the most experience of dealing with the public. Cities probably don't even have their own meteorologists
Re:This is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I would think that standardized and top-down driven would make a lot more sense than randomness. if I see a category 3 heat wave warning for a place I'm about to go visit, I'd like to know what that means without having to dig into the specific city's website and hunting to find out where it's noting what that means to that location.
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They have regional centers that are operated by the NOAA which is funded and operated by the federal government, I'm unaware of any cities or states that have their own meteorological agency that's funded or operated by the state or city.
Clowns (Score:1, Funny)
Hype and Stupidity (Score:5, Insightful)
It is summer folks. Stay hydrated, use sun screen, limit your outdoor activities and hope like hell that the power grid holds.
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Is it alarmist? Well, people die. How much of this is it actually being hotter vs. the progress of civilization getting better at detecting and intervening is debatable, but being somewhat the latter doesn't make it invalid.
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It's not just mentioning it in the forecast, they have to take specific steps like activating air-conditioned facilities where people can go to stay safe, do wellness checks on vulnerable people, determine whether to cancel sporting events. Specific actions.
Is it alarmist? Well, people die. How much of this is it actually being hotter vs. the progress of civilization getting better at detecting and intervening is debatable, but being somewhat the latter doesn't make it invalid.
I don't think it is alarmist. But it really is stupid. We've had heat waves before, and somehow despite them not having a name (or a personal pronoun) people who would have gotten the word before will still get the word. People who don't, or get it and ignore warnings will continue on their way.
There's always reports of some elderly person found dead in their home/apartment with their ceiling fan and TV running during heat waves. It's sad, and no doubt, but giving a heat wave a name really won't save a o
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Hype is important currency in the information economy. Some messages are really important and they get lost in the noise for most people. There is just too much information flowing into people's lives to know what's important. I hate to say it, but we need a way to make it stand out. Giving something a name doesn't dumb it down - it doesn't sound like they're hiding important information. Just giving a moniker to track it by helps create a common language and context.
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Hype is important currency in the information economy. Some messages are really important and they get lost in the noise for most people. There is just too much information flowing into people's lives to know what's important. I hate to say it, but we need a way to make it stand out. Giving something a name doesn't dumb it down - it doesn't sound like they're hiding important information. Just giving a moniker to track it by helps create a common language and context.
All that it does is add hype upon hype, adding to the noise. I don't really care, we do stupid things all the time. But I would assume that heAt wave deaths would plummet to near zero if this actually worked.
But they won't.
People in general have a way to sense heat, other than those unfortunates with CIPA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Most of us will take precautions when it is hot or cold to avoid being killed by that heat or cold. Accidents can happen, but naming an event won't negate chance,
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Under the BEST estimates portions of the U.S. will be uninhabitable [propublica.org] and some heatwaves in the U.S. will move into the "Crock pot" level of 130+ where EVERYONE dies
You link didn't show uninhabitability, but I'm not certain if you are disagreeing with me or what.
My point is that naming heatwaves is pretty pointless, and I might add is adding just that much more noise to the hype machine.
I get weather alerts all the time. Recently it has been weather alerts saying that no significant weather is likely to occur. And a lot of Chicken little type stuff, as people are afraid that if they don't forecast the worst, they might somehow be liable. Eventually you simply tu
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Increased temperatures increase evaporative actions. That results in increased rainfall.
no.
Just ask the Indian Farmers when the Monsoon COOLING doesn't happen (about every 3 years now and becoming more common)
Or ask the satellites why the Himalaya glaciers are retreating
Or ask the Bearing sea shore residents why winter ice is record thin
RISING temperatures means LOWER rainfall over land.
Get over the b.s. from Exxon et al.
Read Realclimate.org for latest updates on detection of bullshit claims by oiligopolists.
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Increased temperatures increase evaporative actions. That results in increased rainfall.
no.
Yes
Just ask the Indian Farmers when the Monsoon COOLING doesn't happen (about every 3 years now and becoming more common)
Y'all are going to have to argue with physics. https://www.reference.com/scie... [reference.com]
Or ask the satellites why the Himalaya glaciers are retreating. Or ask the Bearing sea shore residents why winter ice is record thin RISING temperatures means LOWER rainfall over land. Get over the b.s. from Exxon et al.
Argue with NASA, who are using data, not histrionics: https://www.nasa.gov/vision/ea... [nasa.gov]
Read Realclimate.org for latest updates on detection of bullshit claims by oiligopolists.
I do data and physics, not histrionics. It gets a little boring for some people.
But now some questions, because not everything you wrote makes sense to me. Elucidate, if you will. What are you saying? That either increased rate of evaporation does not exist, or that land will become a desert, as rain won't fall on land. All precipi
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Higher temperatures only increase water uptake.
Air has to COOL before there is more precipitation, thus all the water loss events I noted
Learn to read.
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No. Higher temperatures only increase water uptake. Air has to COOL before there is more precipitation, thus all the water loss events I noted Learn to read.
Oh my, at this point, I'm embarrassed for you.
The guy who tells me I need to learn to read doesn't understand the monsoon mechanics or how air cools.
What will most likely happen in most of the areas where monsoon activity occurs, is that the dry seasons will be hotter and drier, and the wet seasons will be wetter. The extra water vapor cannot stay in the atmosphere. There will be an overall somewhat higher amount of water vapor, but it must cycle out. The present atmospheric water cycle is 9 days, and i
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Complete bullshit. Only the poles will see significant new precipitation. [nasa.gov]The equatorials will desertify, the temperates will suffer runaway storms of increasing power.
Stop spouting and look at the simulation maps.
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Welcome to the modern era folks where everything has an alarmist angle... limit your outdoor activities and hope like hell that the power grid holds.
I for one am glad that there's more planning going into things by smart people, rather than just "hope like hell".
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This is not planning by "smart" people. It's politicians that derive power from alarmism. The people implementing this are no smarter than the average person. Adding names will change nothing. We already have local news media doing public service announcements when severe weather of any kind is forecasted. Cities already take extra steps for both severe heat and cold. It's a waste of time and resources.
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In other words, the people of Texas are going to get screwed even more than they already are.
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O.K., let's take it from the top. Sunscreen is worthless when you get a Pakistani class heatwave of 120+ at 90% RH.
We're talking uninhabitable by the third day, EVERYONE (or close enough for economic purpose) will die. AC fails by 117, and EVERYONE who does not evacuate will die. [propublica.org]
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You do realize there are places that don't generally have air conditioning as standard, right? Because it rarely got hot enough to even need it - typically getting into the 90s for a few days a year. The rest of the time it hangs around the mid-70s and 80s, and for that, normal window ventilation and fans work. (Sorry, there is no need to keep the AC at 72 degrees - I don't understan
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Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
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It seems like there's a new crisis every day and I blame the 24/7 non-stop news mongers. After all, they have to fill airtime and tweets and youtube with unnecessary stuff to keep you up at night.
So in the past month, we have:
Inflation
Fuel Prices
Baby Formula
Food Shortages looming
Monkey Pox
School shootings, more shootings, dumb police, woke prosecutors.
Elections
Ukraine is losing, send them more weapons.
Drag Queen shows in bars with kids.
Next, it will be flying monkeys taking you and your little dog away.
It's
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Dear Young Person,
It has always been thus.
Yours truly,
An oldster.
p.s. The drag shows are safer than churches and schools.
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Churches having violence in the past 12 months in the USA: 27
Drag shows having violence in the past 12 months in the USA: 0
Comparatively, drag shows are safer than church attendance.
But yes, safety is an illusion punctuated eventually by inescapable death. With 100% accuracy, I predict we all die. The devil is in the details.
Keep waking up in the morning, is my mantra.
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Well, in churches and schools they rarely have large neon signs screaming at the kids that "It won't lick itself".
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And such things lead to violent death????
Do let us know where you've seen that sign, by the way. Sounds a bit tawdry. Most drag shows are much more vanilla, although some are baudy, indeed.
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Here you go It's not going to lick itself [youtube.com]
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Eww. Tawdry.
I'll take it over NATO .556 ammo in my head, any day.
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The chances of that happening are miniscule.
If you were to get shot, God forbid, the overwhelming odds would be of it coming from a handgun....mostly likely 9mm.
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See above statistics, which refute your claim. See also that I didn't add in the school shootings.
One statistic is deadly, the other merely ewww and a bad parental choice.
We have drills where kids dive under their desks these day, not unlike how my generation prepared for a nuclear attack from the Soviet sphere.
Kids today are faced with fairly blatant sexual choices. This has mixed blessings, as people aren't beaten to death for being something not heterosexual or gender compliant. Nasty adults? Is that new
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It is not appropriate for children.
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Now the people are cooling down about covid, time to give them a brand new source of scare,over things they can't control.
A mentally sane, emotionaly balanced well thinking General populace?
Not in this country. It's against the general push. . Give them new scare names. that will destabilize them
You've displayed absolutely no knowledge about heat casualties, why did this even trigger you?
There's going to be 108 degree days in Texas this weekend, you picked an incredibly bad time for that take.
Military bases in the US use a color coded heat index system with five categories, with literal flags run up poles every day.
Military: black flag day, outdoor training cancelled. Civies: hur dur it's hot out, don't be scared
https://www.ready.marines.mil/... [marines.mil]
https://www.runnersworld.com/t... [runnersworld.com]
The idea is for every race to determine its own temperature where runner medical problems could begin to overstress local ambulance and medical response.
There's your averag
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Not helpful (Score:3)
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This seems like a way to get more advertising dollars for news channels, drumming up hype. I can hear the klaxon sounding: "Tune in at the top of the hour for HEATWAVE CARL coverage, brought to you by McDonald's"
Obviously the sponsor would be Dairy Queen.
How about Frank? (Score:2)
Frank's a nice name.
Wave if you can hear me! (Score:2)
How about business and consumer-unfriendly policies making little air conditioners more expensive, leading to waves of deaths of old people who can't afford it?
We can call it a "category three" command-and-control wave.
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How about business and consumer-unfriendly policies making little air conditioners more expensive, leading to waves of deaths of old people who can't afford it?
We can call it a "category three" command-and-control wave.
If it were simple as that.
We have Government assistance for paying electrical bills https://www.usa.gov/help-with-... [usa.gov], as well as utility companies https://www.needhelppayingbill... [needhelppayingbills.com]
Heating oil assistance as well, but that's a different topic.
It's a strange world we live in. I'm trying to find the cites for some people in a Chicago heat wave some years back where people had functioning AC, but wouldn't use it. And some people don't "believe" in AC - whatever that means.
This is more than just the usual
we already have that. (Score:2)
They're called Arizona, Texas, and New Mexico.
That will be a nightmare........ (Score:2)
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Category Two's Day.
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A heat wave implies there's some other time of the year. Even in South Carolina, I remember two seasons - Summer and Other Summer.
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I visited there a couple times, and my thought was "how can sane people live here?" and then I realized the answer.
I grew up in central California where it got over 100F regularly (38C), sometimes briefly hitting 110F. though not as humid as the south-east it was not desert dry either. I had a friend from Georgia who had to apologize for scoffing that it couldn't be that miserable without the humidity. But it was in "waves", in that the super high temperatures didn't last more than a week
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"Sweaty Pie"?
The weather terrorists strike again. (Score:2)
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Who is pushing for this? (Score:2)
I assume this is a push from the insurance industry so that like with named storms they can reduce or illiminate coverage of damages.
Yep, Heatwave Annie's pretty hot... (Score:2)
.. but if you want a good blow, go with Hurricane Agatha.
Numeric scales (Score:3)
If they want to update the system this would be a great time to introduce the new centigrade scale that's been going around. It even comes with a nice rhyming conversion table!
30 is hot
20 is nice
10 is chilly
0 is ice
Re:Numeric scales (Score:4, Interesting)
45 is death
40 is hot
30 is fair
20 is sweater
10 is jacket
0 is bonfire
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Nah...I would have no innate knowledge of the temp by hear it.
If the weatherman said it was 48F outside, I'd know exactly how to dress.
If he said it was 15C, I'd have to get some conversion chart to F and then figure how to dress.
I'd would be like cooking, I know how long to cook a large brisket roast at 270F...I'd have no idea how to cook it C gradations.
Sure we could switch here
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If the weatherman said it was 48F outside, I'd know exactly how to dress.
If he said it was 15C, I'd have to get some conversion chart to F and then figure how to dress.
Well that's kind of silly for you for learning a temperature scale used by a tiny minority of the world.
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Well, that's what is used in the US. It is a very large country.
And most of us rarely if ever find need to travel outside our country where we'd encounter the metric system being widely used.
The imperial system is what is taught in schools. I know the metric is mentioned too, but it isn't really used in daily life here at all.
Outside of the lab in school, I've never really encountered it in daily life
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And most of us rarely if ever find need to travel outside our country
You can be sure it shows.
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So what?
In many cases, it is quite nice to have a country as large and diversified as the US as that you can travel and visit many interesting places and meet different people that are still US citizens...and not have to bother about visas, etc.
There's a LOT to do here before we run out of things and have to think about travel outside of our borders.
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I think a lot of people who claim it would be difficult are simply opposed to it because it's different, and hence they put their head in the sand and never learn
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I'm older than you and outside of the lab in college, I've never needed to use metric for anything really in daily life.
My question (Score:2)
Do we know how they self-identify?
Because it seems more than a little oppressive for us to give them names that may not match their personal envisionment of their sexuality, gender, or quasi-ethnic background.*
*insofar as we even dare project the Western patriarchy's view of "ethnicity" associated with "names"
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what to stock up? (Score:2)
We know that hurricanes & blizzards mean get lots of milk & bread, and Pandemics mean get lots of toilet paper.
So, what are the items of import when a heat wave is announced?
Heat waves (Score:2)
Heat waves should be named after porn stars.
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Heat waves should be named after porn stars.
I second that motion!
Next, they'll trademark the names (Score:2)
And then they'll sell naming rights to the highest bidder.
We'll have the Trane Air Conditioning heat wave, and the Igloo Cooler heat wave.
Martha Reeves (Score:2)
The first Heat Wave better be named properly.
"Fuck it's hot" (Score:2)
Gets lame after a while, so using different names should be cool.
Let's not pretend. (Score:3)