Over 100 Million Americans Under Threat from an 'Extreme Heat Belt' Due to Climate Change by 2053: New Study

Extreme heat has recently toppled all-time high temperature records in different cities and towns across the United States in recent months. Previous weather forecasts have shown that some areas received sweltering heat of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Heat alerts in the form of heat advisories or excessive heat warnings have been issued by the National Weather Service (NWS) for millions of Americans.

Now, the threat of the extreme weather is set to expand countrywide in the next 30 years. The unfortunate long-term forecast is based on a new study by US-based researchers, claiming a major heat event called as an "extreme heat belt" will see temperatures spiking to over 125 degrees Fahrenheit. The said belt of heat will spread to areas and regions in the US which it has relatively never reached before.

In recent years, multiple deaths in the North American nation have been linked to the recurring heat wave or heat dome which swept from coast to coast. The regional or nationwide heat events left a number of fatalities, ranging between the hundreds and thousands, caused by various heat-related illnesses, including heat stroke, hyperthermia, and heat stress.

Prior to the new research, previous scientific literature also support the growing evidence yet conventional notion of the impact of climate change to extreme heat not only in the US but also across the world. Altering weather patterns and intensifying weather-related phenomenon, the ongoing climate crisis has brought stronger storms, prolonged droughts, abnormal temperatures, and among others.

Extreme Heat Belt

In the study conducted by the First Street Foundation, a non-profit climate research organization based in New York City, scientists said over 100 million Americans are at risk from the looming extreme heat belt by 2053. The researchers link the worsening heat and humidity is caused by climate change, which brings the dangerous heat to become a reality.

This year alone, approximately 8 million people in the US are affected by a heat index of more than 125 degrees Fahrenheit, an above-normal temperature threshold classified by the NWS under its "extreme danger" category.

The research indicates this similar heat index could skyrocket to affecting 13 times as many people, putting 107 million lives in danger, as cited by CNN.

What is Extreme Heat?

Heat is the leading cause of weather-related fatalities in the US, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), adding that climate change can produce or aggravate extreme heat.

The NOAA also highlights that other factors could also be responsible for the change in temperatures. In particular, the elements that integrate to create the weather events that we know today remains unchanged.

However, the US agency a changing climate can affect one or two elements, making them to either occur more or less often, as well as more or less intense than usual.

The increased number of deaths of an additional 0.07 deaths for every 100,000 adults each year is linked to extreme heat, according to a research published in the journal JAMA Network Open, as cited by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).