I definitely understand the concept of a wet bulb event, but what I'm not sure I understand is if we hit these temperatures, why didn't all the unhoused people die? Hearing we hit wet bulb conditions and then not hearing about a mass death wave makes me think wet bulb conditions aren't actually a death sentence
It's not instant death is one reason, you just start to cook/run a fever that your body physically can't cool down from and will only get worse till the temperature drops. If the temperatures were more intense, the effects would be as well. I would say not to take a tweet like this at face value, but it is very serious, and I would expect some amount of deaths to be reported over the next couple days.
Its around 55°C (131°F) that equals a WBT of 34.5°, but it varies with wind and humidity.
It is a matter of time. No one will survive this, unless they can create circumstances in which their surrounding temperatures are better and/or their evaporation is possible. So for example you use the lower temperature at night and close the windows during the day, your house can hold heat and cold, too. If you go outside wear stuff which gives you a shield of cold air etc.
However most people are not permanently out doors, some are though and regularly unhoused people do die during heat waves (as do people that are older, people that have sicknesses or precarious people who are not totally healthy and have shoddy housing).
Sherwood und Huber (2010) schätzten, dass ein gesunder, im Schatten ruhender Mensch Kühlgrenztemperaturen von etwa 35 °C für ungefähr sechs Stunden überleben kann:
Sherwood and Huber (2010) estimated that a healthy passive person in shade can survive WBT of (around OP's value) for roughly six hours.
In Phoenix for example in 2021 around 340 people died due to heat during the heat wave of which a third was unhoused.
Beyond that temperature people can't really sweat/evaporate enough to cool their body down which is basically creating a fever inside of you which makes processes not work that are temperature sensitive and finally you die.
also while evaporative cooling no longer works, people without A/C might have access to ice? i imagine that helps. also not clear on how immersion in cooler water might help
also not clear on how immersion in cooler water might help
Heat transfer by conduction isn't affected by wet-bulb temperatures. If you jump into a cold lake it will definitely help.
Also, public places like malls and libraries typically have air conditioning. You could go to one of these places if you don't have access to air conditioning otherwise.
heat damage / heat-related injury can take time to kill someone. this article indicates it can take months. so even a short duration event can kill people, but their heart might not stop until later. substance abuse can also bring it out, as someone experiencing injury may not notice or take whatever small action protect themselves if otherwise impaired. removedpa county (phoenix) keeps a public record of heat-related death and makes reports available periodically, because the impact is unequal across society for reasons you can probably guess (poverty, unhoused, elderly, etc).
something else to be aware of, people can survive heat-injury just by having cool enough temperatures at night. or put another way, the damage from heat-injury during the day can be compounded if the night stays hot as well.
i'm not an expert. i just used to work outdoors, all day in a part of the US that can get high heat and humidity. had a few brushes with heat stress and it comes with its own feelings of mental impairment. like how people succumbing to the cold feel tired and want to rest. heat stress can produce confusion, slurred speech, etc. added danger comes from the disconnect with discomfort and loss of critical cognition.
I think for the most part people will collapse and get sent to the ER where they recover, at this point. My partner works in a medical center and they’ve been taking in a lot of heat stroke cases like that (north Texas)
I definitely understand the concept of a wet bulb event, but what I'm not sure I understand is if we hit these temperatures, why didn't all the unhoused people die? Hearing we hit wet bulb conditions and then not hearing about a mass death wave makes me think wet bulb conditions aren't actually a death sentence
It's not instant death is one reason, you just start to cook/run a fever that your body physically can't cool down from and will only get worse till the temperature drops. If the temperatures were more intense, the effects would be as well. I would say not to take a tweet like this at face value, but it is very serious, and I would expect some amount of deaths to be reported over the next couple days.
Its around 55°C (131°F) that equals a WBT of 34.5°, but it varies with wind and humidity.
It is a matter of time. No one will survive this, unless they can create circumstances in which their surrounding temperatures are better and/or their evaporation is possible. So for example you use the lower temperature at night and close the windows during the day, your house can hold heat and cold, too. If you go outside wear stuff which gives you a shield of cold air etc.
However most people are not permanently out doors, some are though and regularly unhoused people do die during heat waves (as do people that are older, people that have sicknesses or precarious people who are not totally healthy and have shoddy housing).
In Phoenix for example in 2021 around 340 people died due to heat during the heat wave of which a third was unhoused.
Beyond that temperature people can't really sweat/evaporate enough to cool their body down which is basically creating a fever inside of you which makes processes not work that are temperature sensitive and finally you die.
Sorry that I can't be more precise.
A wet-bulb event won't become mass casualty without a collapse of the power grid. People can still escape to cooler areas.
If the power grid collapses simultaneously, there will be nowhere to go.
Submerge yourself in a lake or river would be the only possibilty
Real survival tip folks: if water is even one degree cooler than body temperature, it can still keep you alive in such an event.
Unless they're physically incapable or prevented from doing so, such as prisoners, rest home residents, or the unhoused in particularly hostile areas.
also while evaporative cooling no longer works, people without A/C might have access to ice? i imagine that helps. also not clear on how immersion in cooler water might help
Heat transfer by conduction isn't affected by wet-bulb temperatures. If you jump into a cold lake it will definitely help.
Also, public places like malls and libraries typically have air conditioning. You could go to one of these places if you don't have access to air conditioning otherwise.
Good thing no one ever gets the cops called on them for loitering under those conditions because they didn't buy something, right?
...Good thing no one ever gets the cops called on them for loitering under those conditions because they didn't buy something, right?
heat damage / heat-related injury can take time to kill someone. this article indicates it can take months. so even a short duration event can kill people, but their heart might not stop until later. substance abuse can also bring it out, as someone experiencing injury may not notice or take whatever small action protect themselves if otherwise impaired. removedpa county (phoenix) keeps a public record of heat-related death and makes reports available periodically, because the impact is unequal across society for reasons you can probably guess (poverty, unhoused, elderly, etc).
something else to be aware of, people can survive heat-injury just by having cool enough temperatures at night. or put another way, the damage from heat-injury during the day can be compounded if the night stays hot as well.
i'm not an expert. i just used to work outdoors, all day in a part of the US that can get high heat and humidity. had a few brushes with heat stress and it comes with its own feelings of mental impairment. like how people succumbing to the cold feel tired and want to rest. heat stress can produce confusion, slurred speech, etc. added danger comes from the disconnect with discomfort and loss of critical cognition.
I think for the most part people will collapse and get sent to the ER where they recover, at this point. My partner works in a medical center and they’ve been taking in a lot of heat stroke cases like that (north Texas)
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