Extreme heat is coming to communities across the United States this week, and the CDC and the National Weather Service (NWS) have new tools to help people prepare for health risks.
The heat is the top climate-related killer in the United States, a threat that is worsening with climate change. But even though heat waves kill about 1,220 people in the United States, According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health risks can often go unnoticed. Heat waves don't necessarily provoke the same sense of urgency as tropical storms, for example, which are named and categorized based on their intensity.
This year, it's easier to see how any impending heat wave could affect your area thanks to the HeatRisk tools released by the CDC and NWS this year. You can go to Heat Hazard Control Panel and enter your ZIP code to see health forecasts and recommendations for your area. For a bigger picture of how the heat is affecting the U.S., check out a photo HeatRisk experimental online forecasting tool with a new color-coded system to assess health risks.
“With the heat, it's much harder to see the impact unless it hits you”
“For hurricanes and tornadoes, they may get a lot more attention because you can visibly see the damage that occurs. But with the heat, it's much harder to see the impact unless it affects you,” says Jessica Lee, NWS public weather services program coordinator. “The main thing we hope to achieve with HeatRisk is for it to be used by people to help them personalize what the forecast heat will mean for them and better understand what actions they should take.”
More than 72.9 million people (more than a fifth of the population) are under active heat advisories as is an unprecedented heat wave forecast will unfold across much of the central US and Northeast this week. Open the National Weather Service Heat Risk Tooland you will see a map of the contiguous United States in flames in yellow, orange, red and magenta. Each color is a warning about the possible impacts that heat is expected to have in a particular location each day of the week.
For now, much of the northwest is green, denoting “little to no risk from expected heat.” Yellow indicates a “lower” risk level, although this can still affect people who are more susceptible to heat-related illnesses, especially anyone who has to spend time outdoors. The “moderate” risk, defined as affecting “most heat-sensitive people, especially those without effective cooling and/or adequate hydration,” is labeled in orange.
Children and elderly people they tend to be more vulnerable. Children's bodies are less efficient at cooling themselves, and older adults may be taking medications that affect their body's ability to thermoregulate or may have health problems that heat can exacerbate. It's a good idea to check on loved ones who live alone or have chronic health problems during an orange alert.
Red and magenta correspond to “significant” and “extreme” health risks, respectively. At those levels, anyone could be at risk if he doesn't have a way to cool off and stay hydrated. Parts of Texas and states in the Midwest, Ohio Valley, Mid-Atlantic and New England are forecast to face episodes of “extreme” risk this week. This is considered rare, as it usually takes a prolonged heat wave with elevated daytime and nighttime temperatures to reach the magenta risk level.
It is important to understand how heat interacts with an individual's health history and their environment. Urban sprawl tends to trap heat, making urban neighborhoods appear much warmer than more rural areas. Meanwhile, cities in the Southwest may be better prepared for temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit than the typically colder regions of the Pacific Northwest, where air conditioning is not as common. The heat can even exacerbate air pollution in your area by overloading the chemical reaction that creates smog. By entering your zip code in the CDC Heat Risk Dashboard addresses many of these nuances, sharing information about air quality in addition to Color-coded HeatRisk scores of the week and actions to take to protect your health.
The two websites thrown out on Earth Day, April 22 of this year. The tools are based on a similar system used in California since 2013 that expanded to other Western states in 2017. Early iterations focused on climatological data, such as rising temperatures compared to the norm in that area. Shortly after, the NWS began working with the CDC to incorporate health information into its assessments and account for higher humidity in the eastern half of the US.
HeatRisk remains an “experimental product” as agencies continue to take public feedback through September 30 via a online form. They will then decide whether to implement changes based on that feedback and/or continue receiving feedback. In 2022, the United States launched another website called heat.gov to help urban planners stay up to date on heat alerts and incorporate that data into their decision making.
