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The Washington Post reports
It's not all that common, but the hottest weather in the nation lined up along the Interstate 95 corridor from the District [of Columbia] to Boston on Tuesday afternoon [June 13]. More than 15 locations set record highs.
[...] Temperatures into the mid-90s were widespread. Factor in the humidity, and it felt more like 95 to 100.
[...] In Boston, the heat wave was the second of the year, the earliest on record that the city posted two such events.
[...] Dulles International Airport climbed to 95 degrees, breaking the previous record of 94 set in 1994.
Baltimore soared to 97 degrees, tying the record set in 1956.
The Center for American Progress reports
An early summer heat wave delivered record temperatures from Nebraska to Maine this week. On Tuesday, some parts of the Midwest and Northeast saw temperatures 20 degrees above the historical average. And this is just the beginning of what is expected to be a very hot summer.
In case you were wondering--yes, this is what climate change looks like.
[...] Globally, carbon pollution is trapping heat, shifting the entire distribution of temperatures.
[...] Temperatures at the far end of the distribution, the ones that break records, are almost invariably explained by carbon pollution. A recent study found that, globally, 85 percent of record-hot days are the product of climate change.
The shift in temperatures means less extreme cold and more extreme heat. Correspondingly, record highs are now drastically outnumbering record lows in the United States.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of California - Irvine report Small climb in mean temperatures linked to far higher chance of deadly heat waves
An increase in mean temperature of 0.5 degrees Celsius over half a century may not seem all that serious, but it's enough to have more than doubled the probability of a heat wave killing in excess of 100 people in India, according to researchers at the University of California, Irvine and other institutions.
This could have grim implications for the future, because mean temperatures are projected to rise by 2.2 to 5.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century in the low- and mid-latitude countries of the Asian subcontinent, the Middle East, Africa, and South America.
[...] Using data gathered by the India Meteorological Department from 1960 to 2009, the UCI-led team analyzed changes in summer temperatures; the frequency, severity and duration of heat waves; and heat-related deaths.
They found that when mean summer temperatures in the South Asia nation went from 27 to 27.5 degrees Celsius, the probability of a heat wave killing more than 100 people grew from 13 percent to 32 percent--an increase of 146 percent.
Journal reference: Omid Mazdiyasni et al. Increasing probability of mortality during Indian heat waves. Science Advances, June 2017 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.1700066
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @12:33PM (10 children)
Here's another one:
Half a century ago, a smaller proportion of households had air conditioning. So the deaths have risen despite an increase in indoor climate control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @01:06PM
Despite, or because of? A greater proportion with AC means higher temperatures for those without.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by khallow on Friday June 16 2017, @01:24PM (8 children)
I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader why the observation that there's more AC isn't going to significantly change the problem of people dying in heat waves in the near future.
Incidentally, using 0.02% as the current level of air conditioner use and growth rate of 20% in air conditioner use, I can crudely fit this to a sigmoid curve to estimate that it'll take somewhat more than two decades, perhaps 25 years (to allow for growth in the number of households) for 50% of Indian households to use air conditioners, starting from 2014. For 90% of Indian households to have AC it would be in excess of three decades, but probably less than four decades from 2014. I think this estimate is good enough to in turn predict that we'll see a sharp decline in deaths from heat waves for India starting in 2035 or so due to the prevalence of AC past that point.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:29PM (3 children)
Did you take into account electricity generation, distribution and availability problems prevailing in India? The AC units do need electricity to run after all, and blackouts during summer days are pervasive in there. The scale of deficit is close to unimaginable so that sigmoid curve of yours better have good support.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 16 2017, @02:45PM (2 children)
Of course not. If India chooses not to fix those problems, which let us note, are rather trivial for countries to solve over the time frame involved, then it will, of course, take them longer to adopt AC technology.
Build a better grid and the support will be there.
(Score: 2) by http on Friday June 16 2017, @05:41PM (1 child)
Interesting definition of trivial you got there. Be a shame if something were to happen to it.
I browse at -1 when I have mod points. It's unsettling.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 16 2017, @06:49PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @02:32PM (3 children)
India needs more generation and grid to run all your projected air conditioners - from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electricity_sector_in_India [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 16 2017, @02:47PM (2 children)
From your quote:
Sounds like someone has already figured out how to solve the problem.
(Score: 2) by sbgen on Saturday June 17 2017, @03:26AM (1 child)
It appears India already has a sizable deficit. You have a sigmoidal curve - what does it say this deficit will be by 2050? What if you include the rate of population growth in it? I hope there is some data from IEA report about this, the one that you quote there.
Warning: Not a computer expert, but got to use it. Yes, my kind does exist.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday June 17 2017, @03:47AM