Upstream | July 21, 2011 | 25 comments

Why 107-degree overnight temperatures should freak you out

source: http://www.grist.org/list/2011-07-21-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-gives-50-million-to-fight-coal-mich...

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lordsbassman
Government conspiracy heat wave or no government conspiracy heat wave, this summer is setting records -- not just record maximum temperatures, but also record minimums. On June 27, Oman recorded the world’s highest ever minimum temperature when the mercury failed to drop below 107.1 degrees F, even overnight. And that’s more important, in a global sense, than the record highs.

A few things too-often glossed over in discussions of what climate change is doing to temperatures the world over:

1. In many cases, nighttime minimum temperatures are rising faster than daytime maximums, narrowing the gap between average daytime and nighttime temperatures even as both rise. And here's an excellent map-based representation of what this is doing to the U.S.

2. It's nighttime temperatures, not daytime highs, that kill people.

The biggest concern for heat-related illnesses and deaths isn't during the daylight hours when temperatures can penetrate triple-digits, but rather overnight when the mercury doesn't fall below 80 degrees, said Zachary Thompson, Dallas County Health Department Director.
"Everybody normally focuses on that daytime temperature, but that nighttime temperature brings us to a deadly level that is a concern, because at night, there's no cooling off," he added.
This is the reason 5,000 people died in Paris in 2003. And the more people use air conditioning, the worse the urban heat island effect that kills people becomes.

3. Up to a point, higher daytime temperatures actually increase yields of rice, which is the staple food for billions of people. But higher nighttime temperatures decrease those yields. Like people, growing rice needs to cool off overnight.

Increasing nighttime temperatures are therefore a double threat, to both public health and food security, and they are rising faster than daytime highs. While new maximum temperatures grab the headlines, it's the record-breaking minimums that are more likely to be one of the four horsemen of the coming climate apocalypse.


http://www.grist.org/list/2011-07-21-nyc-mayor-bloomberg-gives-50-million-to-fig...
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25 comments // Why 107-degree overnight temperatures should freak you out

  • Conspiracy2Riot
  • fernweher
  • remanns
  • aj727b
    • +3
      aj727b  

    • A good introduction to a scary phenomenon... Monoculture corn farming is also making things worse as it boosts humidity and dewpoint numbers dramatically at night, a major factor making it even more difficult for the human body to cool.

    • 10 months ago
  • ThirdSection
  • AJILIVIZION
    • +2
      AJILIVIZION  

    • I read an article from The Daily that focussed on the how energy consumption has spiked just as dramatically as the temperatures. What the story totally failed to point out was the source for the country's energy; such as natural gas, coal and nuclear power. So as we experience the effects of climate change, the country is accelerating the problems. We live in some crazy times.

    • 10 months ago
  • oppressed1
  • Buddha2112
  • AJILIVIZION
  • Varex_Sythe
  • totally_dilapidated
  • totally_dilapidated
  • meesh76
  • letsliveinpeace
  • coolplanet
    • -1
      coolplanet  

    • Excellent points.
      I've been calling it Ecocollapse ever since NASA's Jim Hansen first alerted the world to global warming back in the mid 1980s.
      When the Arctic ice all melts -- maybe this year! -- it will no longer be deniable.
      Sad it takes something like that for us to take action, after it's too late.

    • 10 months ago
  • fernweher
    • -1
      fernweher  
    • Image
    • coolplanet:

      I think ppl can deny anything at this point. Canada has its whole province of Ontario covered by wildfires for weeks; the trees are brittle due to extreme drought and there are lightning strikes almost every day that keep spreading the fires. These storms are not normal. Choking on smoke for weeks and evacuating homes because the fires keep spreading, how is this normal or acceptable? Yet even when the US weather service was monitoring air pollution in Michigan from smoke that had drifted across the border, no one mentioned global warming.
      No one mentioned that extreme weather was destroying Ontario, terrorizing its population and that we might have caused some of that. Even worse, we will cause more of this if we don't severely limit our carbon emissions. Someone is going to have to fight to get the truth out there. http://liberal-propaganda.blogspot.com/2011/07/mother-nature-raises-hell-this-su...

    • 10 months ago
  • coolplanet
  • Valence
  • lordsbassman
  • XOXMSperfect
    • 0
      XOXMSperfect  
    • Valence:

      Because humidity skyrockets at night due to condensation (or due to dew) and cloudy weather can force hot air down, so the heat radiating out of the ground from the intense sun has nowhere to go and condenses in a heat dome (which technically half the country is under a heat dome) AND the humidity makes it even worse. Worst of all is that even though it been so humid alot of places are starting to drought.

    • 10 months ago
  • percipi224
    • +1
      percipi224  
    • Valence:

      its the averages overall, If its usually 65 at night than over the last ten years it turns out that it is 80 at night more often than not....that is 15 degrees, but during the day if it is 95 usually than it is 100 more often than not over the last ten years that is only 5 degrees. The night time average is more extreme in change than the day time. It isn't cooling off enough. Part of the reason is the humidity levels are higher and the air doesn't dry out, warm wet air tends to be more harmful than cool dryer air. That is why the saying; "its a dry heat" is considered better. 85 in dry air feels cooler than wet 85. it is because you can't perspire and cool yourself in wet air. Wet cold is bad for animals but okay for plants. Dry cold kills plants, but animals can do better. So extreme changes in either direction depending on region effect many creatures. I generalize to some extent. but that's the jist

    • 10 months ago
  • Valence
  • Buddha2112
    • +2
      Buddha2112  
    • Valence:

      well, for some reason... maybe with this whole 'dome' thing, the earth can't cool off at night... All that energy gathered during the day has nowhere to go at night, also doesn't help that we've paved half the fucking country and built heat absorbing cities...

      This problem compounds each day the heat wave persists. With direct sun pounding an area, keeping temperatures at 90 all day, 80 at night, will carry over to 95 all day 85 all night... then on and on... No those aren't the real numbers or right correlation, but that's essentially what is happening. It's so damn hot that the lack of sunlight is negated by trapped energy in the air and in the ground... and with less water to go around, that means less evaporation, and the ground never cools, water stays trapped high up in the air, and everything continues to heat up.... bahhhhhhhhhhhhhh I don't like this game anymore.

      It is a very sweaty and slippery slope.

    • 10 months ago
  • Valence
  • fernweher
    • -1
      fernweher  
    • Valence:

      the night temps are Rising more, but their total is not higher. For example, say the average July temps in New York were 65 at night and 85 in the day. This year we are breaking records with 90 in the day and 80 at night. The day is still hotter than the night but the night temp increased by a lot more, 15 degrees!

      This is a bad situation because we are losing the cooling break of night. The balance of daily temperature rise and falls is being destroyed, and this could disrupt the health of people, animals and agriculture.

    • 10 months ago
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