Hi Everyone,
In our past newsletters I have tried to interject humor so that the newsletter wouldn’t be as dull as a telephone directory from Minnesota. But, with this newsletter I’ll be dealing with a subject of DEADLY importance.
HEAT & It’s Dangers
We are currently enduring one of the most dangerous heat waves in many years. Heat and heat related illnesses are not something to be shrugged off. About 237 Americans die each year due to heat related illnesses.
The first part of this heat wave lacked humidity, and it wasn’t overly terrible, except for it feeling like a desert. But now, as my instruments agree, the humidity has returned and we are in a seriously dangerous situation.
Our bodies cooling mechanisms – internal blood circulation adjustments, sweating and evaporation are defeated by the high humidity. Though you are rapidly losing your body’s water reserves through sweating, the sweat cannot evaporate fast enough to dissipate the heat in the high humidity.
<div id="_
mcePaste”>We are familiar with the term “heat index”. This index was developed to help identify the danger zone, and express how the combined temperature and humidity “feels” or affects the human body.
The Shaded Heat Index can be determined using this chart.
<div id="_mcePaste”>I picked this version because it uses the Dewpoint. Some charts use Relative Humidity, which is fine, except the humidity is constantly varying with temperature fluctuations, while the Dewpoint usually remains fairly steady.
