Deadly Heat Waves

From this piece on the European droughts and heat waves:

Record-breaking heat has killed over 1,000 people in Western Europe over the past week, while firefighters battle to contain blazes scorching swathes of three countries amid a worsening climate emergency, officials said this weekend.

El País reports heat killed 360 people in Spain between July 10 and July 15. This follows the heat-related deaths of more than 800 people last month, according to the Spanish government’s Carlos III Health Institute. Madrid-Barajas International Airport recorded an all-time high temperature of 108°F Thursday, while some Spanish municipalities registered highs of 110°F to 113°F.

One 60-year-old Madrid sanitation worker collapsed in the middle of the street while working Friday. The man was rushed to the hospital with a body temperature of over 106°F and died of heat stroke. He was one of 123 people who suffered heat-related deaths Friday in Spain.

The heat waves of Southern Europe provide another opportunity to talk about how and why high temperatures are so deadly.

As we see from the story above, high temperatures by themselves can cause death by hyperthermia, as the victim’s body temperature reaches a point where vital functions are impaired via the breakdown of the actual cells.

Adding humidity makes all this more dangerous than the “dry heat” found in deserts.  Wet bulb temperature is defined as the lowest temperature a volume of air can achieve by evaporative cooling.  The human body cannot survive extended periods in wet bulb temperatures over 95° F, which occurs at 100° F and 83% humidity or 110° F and 56% humidity.