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Hothouse Mass Casualties Strike Egypt, Heatwave Continues to Hospitalize Thousands in Japan
11
May, 2015
Back
in May, official temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95
degrees Fahrenheit) as humidity levels spiked in Cairo, Egypt.
The early high heat and humidity sparked anxiety among residents
worrying over the coming summer. Public complaints about official
temperatures being lower than actual measures were widespread among a
populace vulnerable to heat exposure in a notoriously hot region of
the world suffering the ongoing impacts of human-forced warming.
The
below video captures some of the sentiment of a few months ago, when
concern that record global temperatures in the range of 1 degree
Celsius above 1880s averages might result in harm to Egypt’s
populace was widespread and growing:
(Egyptian residents feared the killing heat was coming back in May. Sadly, their concerns have born out as a powerful heatwave in July and August is resulting in tragic loss of life there. Video source here.)
Unfortunately, the
early fears appear to have been all-too-valid.
For in late July a seasonal flow of hot, humid air from India,
Pakistan and the Persian Gulf began to settle over Egypt. The hot air
issued from regions where deaths
from 2015 heatwaves numbered in the hundreds and thousands, where
hospitalizations numbered in the tens of thousands.
As the heat dome extended its oppressive tendrils over Egypt, both
temperatures and humidity spiked — pushing wet bulb readings into
ranges that made it difficult for humans to maintain body
temperatures. Official air temperature readings ranged from 35 to 47
degrees Celsius (95 to 116 degrees Fahrenheit) and the added moisture
reduced the ability of evaporation to cool the skin.
The
risk of heat injury rose. And over the past few days this hot air and
humidity spike began to prey on Egyptian residents. The
result was 42 tragic deaths due to the excess heat over the past two
days alone.
Scores more were hospitalized as the entire country from north to
south sweltered.
Weather
forecasts, unfortunately, show the hothouse heat continuing to
blanket Egypt throughout the coming month. Let’s hope that,
somehow, the terrible toll in heat casualties abates.
Japan
Heatwave Mass Casualty Event Continues
It’s
a hotter world we live in now. One in which any of us living on Earth
are now four times as likely to experience a heatwave than we were
during the 1880s. And at the most extreme end of this spectrum are
the heatwave mass casualty events — which this year have been very
numerous and widespread. Italy, Egypt, the Persian
Gulf, Pakistan, India and Japan have
now all experienced mass hospitalizations and deaths due to the
excess heat of a world forced to rapidly warm by human fossil fuel
emissions.
For
Japan, which has been experiencing heatwave related deaths and
hospitalizations since July, the harm due to excess heat spiked to
new extremes this week. There,
over the past seven days alone, nearly 12,000 people were
hospitalized due to heat stroke.
That’s the highest number of heatwave related casualties since
tracking of these new events began in 2008. And of the thousands
hospitalized, an additional 32 souls were lost.
(Heat
and humidity from a pool of anomalously hot ocean water is still
blasting Japan, resulting in the hospitalization of an ever-rising
number heatstroke victims. Sea surface temperatures remain in the
range of 2-4 degrees Celsius above average as a heat dome high
pressure system swelters Japan. Sea surface temperature anomaly map
by Earth
Nullschool.)
The
new wave of deaths and hospitalizations brings
to over 45,000 the total number of heat stroke victims requiring
emergency care in Japan during this summer alone.
More than a thousand of these victims have required care extending
longer than 3 weeks. And, tragically, more than 85 souls have now
been lost.
During
this time, Tokyo shattered its record for longest period of 35 C (95
F) degree or hotter days running. The
above 35 C readings extended for a full eight days from July 31 to
August 7th.
It’s high heat and humidity that resulted in hundreds of
hospitalizations for that city alone. And though the heat has
somewhat abated, temperatures during recent days have remained in the
range of 33 to 34 C (92 to 94 F)– still scorching-hot for a
typically much cooler city.
Overall,
Japan’s oppressive heat dome hasn’t budged. And it will likely
remain in place until extremely hot sea surface temperatures
surrounding Japan begin to abate. As of today, there was little sign
of such relief as the hot waters remained in the range of 2-4 degrees
Celsius above average. And so the hot waters continued to pump both
heat and moisture into the air around and over Japan, spiking wet
bulb readings and creating a dangerous situation for residents not at
all used to these abnormal conditions.
Links
Egypt
Heatwave Kills 42
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Tip to Brian
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Tip to Colorado Bob
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