Science Daily May 8, 2020
Humans’ ability to efficiently shed heat has enabled us to range over every continent, but a wet-bulb temperature (TW) of 35°C marks our upper physiological limit, and much lower values have serious health and productivity impacts. An international team of researchers (USA – Caltech. Columbia University, UK) found that a comprehensive evaluation of weather station data shows that some coastal subtropical locations have already reported a TW of 35°C and that extreme humid heat overall has more than doubled in frequency since 1979. The most extreme humid heat is highly localized in both space and time and is correspondingly substantially underestimated in reanalysis products. Their findings thus underscore the serious challenge posed by humid heat that is more intense than previously reported and increasingly severe…read more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Global trends in extreme humid heat. Credit: Science Advances 08 May 2020: Vol. 6, no. 19, eaaw1838