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posted by Fnord666 on Thursday July 18 2019, @09:23AM   Printer-friendly
from the scorching-news dept.

Heat Wave to Hit Two-Thirds of the U.S. Here’s What to Expect.

Dangerously hot temperatures are expected to spread across the Central and Eastern United States on Wednesday through the weekend, with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in the hardest-hit places, the National Weather Service has warned.

And even when the sun dips below the horizon, temperatures in many places are expected to remain in the 80s.

The hottest part of the country? Smack dab in the middle.

Everyone living in the region stretching from northern Oklahoma and central Nebraska through Iowa, Missouri and western Illinois should brace for a “prolonged period of dangerously hot temperatures and high humidity,” the warnings say. People in central and south central Kansas should expect to endure highs of about 102 degrees; the temperature in Des Moines was expected to hover around 100.

Excessive heat warnings have also been posted farther east, for parts of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

All told, at least 15 million people across the United States are currently being warned of dangerously high temperatures that could affect human health between Wednesday and Friday.

By the weekend, what meteorologists are calling a “heat dome” in the middle part of the country is expected to spread into the Great Lakes and the East Coast.

Extreme heat can kill. Here’s what you can do to stay safe.

“The combination of heat and humidity can take its toll on someone who is outside and overdoing it,” said Richard Bann, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. “It can be life-threatening.”

Last year, 108 people died from extreme heat, compared to just 30 who died from cold, according to statistics on weather-related fatalities released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Here are four safety recommendations from the National Weather Service:

  • Drink plenty of fluids.

  • Stay in an air-conditioned room.

  • Stay out of the sun.

  • Check on relatives and neighbors, especially the elderly.


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  • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:39PM (6 children)

    by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:39PM (#868561)
    I miss being close to an ocean for that very reason. Well that and the almost constant breeze. I felt kind of mislead when I wound up in the Midwest after growing up in Florida. Most days it's just as humid and freaking hotter! And when the air is still it can get absolutely oppressive.
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  • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:50PM (5 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Thursday July 18 2019, @04:50PM (#868572)

    But, don't the blizzards make up for it? I almost never see snow, much less a blizzard - they look like fun ;-)

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    • (Score: 2) by EvilSS on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:49PM

      by EvilSS (1456) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:49PM (#868605)
      Not really. Up in the Canada adjacent states you get snow on the ground most of the winter. So you can actually do cool stuff with it. Snowmobile, downhill ski, other type of ski that's more like walking, but with skis. Where I'm at true blizzards are pretty rare. It's mostly just an annoyance. It sticks around long enough to cause traffic headaches then melts off. The rest of the winter is just varying shades of brown. We also have no real mountains, what trees we have are pretty shitty (They blow over at the drop of a hat, I don't know how they evolved to actually live here). Rivers are all muddy and brown and filled with you-don't-want-to-swim-in-that. Seafood restaurants that are not Red Lobster are few and far between. Pistachio ice cream is almost impossible to find. Yea just don't really recommend it here unless you don't like going outside.
    • (Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:56PM

      by cmdrklarg (5048) Subscriber Badge on Thursday July 18 2019, @05:56PM (#868609)

      Well, here in MN we are known for the cold in winter, but during summer 90's are common and we reach 100+ a few times a year. Usually we get high humidity along with those temps, which generally gives rise to afternoon thunderstorms. Generally the hot days don't go on for a long stretch like down south. This year has been particularly wet.

      Gotta love the continental climate; 100+ in summer, -30 or lower in winter.

      --
      The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
    • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 19 2019, @07:42AM (2 children)

      by Reziac (2489) on Friday July 19 2019, @07:42AM (#868872) Homepage

      Oh good -- I've just found a volunteer to shovel out my driveway! :D

      --
      And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
      • (Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday July 19 2019, @11:26AM (1 child)

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Friday July 19 2019, @11:26AM (#868906)

        The exact reason my classmate moved back from Boston after 18 months working there...

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        🌻🌻 [google.com]
        • (Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday July 19 2019, @02:46PM

          by Reziac (2489) on Friday July 19 2019, @02:46PM (#868977) Homepage

          Hah, that's just baby blizzards. If you want to see REAL blizzards, where you're digging out of 12 foot drifts, come to the Great Plains!

          Wyoming's "Storm of the Century" documentary, suitable for frightening southerners:
          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl6Iz4dXGdg [youtube.com]

          I found weather maps of the storm, and pretty clearly it was in fact a mega-hurricane, but over land rather than ocean. (And small potatoes. Siberia has these every winter, only bigger.... last year one Russian city out in the backbeyond had snow up to the 3rd floor windows.)

          --
          And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.