It is officially heat apocalypse in the Northwest region of America as high temperatures killed over 100 people across the region since the beginning of summer.
An intense heat wave roasted many US states and cities, resulting to sudden deaths of people which scientists believe to be a cause of heat and humidity conditions.
According to a 2020 study on emergence of heat and humidity, temperature during severe heat waves may reach to a certain condition called 'wet bulb' that can impose a physiological limit that a human body can no longer tolerate, eventually leading to an 'overheat'.
Research findings revealed that humid heat can pose more intense and serious effects than ever before.
NEW YORK, NY, - JULY 06: A man pushes a cart of bottled water down Broadway during warm weather on July 6, 2012 in New york City. Forecasts for tomorrow are predicting temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) and may feel as hot as 106 because of humidity, according to the National weather Service.
The 'Wet Bulb' Condition
Before the wet bulb condition was even introduced mid 21st century, scientists are convinced that it had already existed. Radley Horton, Lamont Research Professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and his colleagues found that over 7,000 instances of the said conditions had already led human deaths around the world.
As per their surveyed weather station data collected between 1979 and 2017, most of the conditions were concentrated in South Asia, the coastal Middle East, and southwest North America.
Wet bulb conditions typically occur when humidity reaches 95 percent and above, or when temperatures are at least 88 degrees F. Apparently, the extremely high temperature overheats the human body, that even perfectly healthy people may suffer from, as long as there is enough moisture in the air.
The US government and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) had supported Horton's study and now actively monitoring the deadly condition that caused hundreds of sudden deaths.
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Laws of Thermodynamics
With the weather's finite ways of taking up water or moisture in your body under severe humid conditions, "it is thermodynamically impossible to prevent the body from overheating," Horton said. "Even if they're in perfect health, even if they're sitting in the shade, even if they're wearing clothes that make it easy in principle to sweat, even if they have an endless supply of water."
Although sweating helps the body cope with a hot weather, sweat droplets cannot dissolve into the air on overly humid conditions. "Dry heat, like that of the desert, is typically more comfortable than humid heat for this reason."
In conclusion, the human body cannot withhold extreme humid and heat conditions for the reason that we do not have the gradient to make the atmosphere take the moisture in our body, and that water gets trapped, 'getting hotter and hotter without ever evaporating into a gas'.
At this time, other regions including the Southeast US, the Gulf of Mexico and Northern Australia are reaching this point, with increasing wet bulb temperatures by the day.
Air conditioning helps reduce exposure to wet bulb temperature, however, access to it gets lower and cannot be guaranteed especially in poor areas.
Recent communication suggests that wet bulb conditions might factor a possible climate migration as many places have already started becoming uninhabitable by humans.
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