Dangerous heat wave to impact hundreds of millions in US

AccuWeather

Around 170 million people from the Midwest to the Northeast are at risk of a dangerous heat wave that can cause heat-related illnesses and is expected to grip these regions of the U.S. next week.

Transcript

00:00Oftentimes, certainly there's lots of discussion about the high temperatures during the day,

00:05but what is critical in these heat waves is how warm it stays at night.

00:11So if you don't have air conditioning, your place of residence never cools down,

00:16and that's where it becomes dangerous.

00:18That's when it becomes especially dangerous because there is not a recovery time, as you mentioned.

00:23At Bernie, when we take a look at those overnight low temperatures, look at this.

00:2797 during the day on Sunday, only down to 76, only down to 76, only down to 71.

00:34So with those temperatures overnight staying elevated between 75 and 80 degrees,

00:40that's a real concern as it relates to increasing the risk for heat illness,

00:45and that can happen very quickly, especially when there's very limited recovery time at night.

00:50We're always trying to give as much communication and to put the heat into different contexts

00:57so everybody understands the danger.

01:00And one of the indices that we created was the AccuWeather Heat Severity Index.

01:06There's Chicago.

01:08And, John, explain how this works.

01:10Yeah, this is another exclusive AccuWeather tool.

01:13It's called the AccuWeather Heat Wave Counter and Severity Index.

01:16We count the number of heat waves, and remember, in Chicago, to have a heat wave,

01:20you need three or more consecutive days at or above 90 degrees.

01:24So we track those, and we've gone back decades and decades in the historical record

01:29to compute and find all the heat waves over time.

01:32And then we also look at the duration of the heat wave and the intensity,

01:36how high those temperatures will be.

01:38So a longer-duration heat wave and one with temperatures that are higher,

01:45that will result in a greater heat wave severity index.

01:48We sum it up over the heat wave, and we get 14 for this upcoming heat wave.

01:53And you notice that's a strong heat wave right in the middle of the strong definition here for Chicago.

01:59And we look back in time.

02:00It's the first heat wave this year.

02:02And you notice that it will be the most intense heat wave here, actually, back 2024,

02:08be the strongest.

02:09We didn't have one that will be higher than that in 2024 or 2023.

02:14So it's the most intense heat wave in the last couple of years here in Chicago.

02:19So, again, this is why we're urging people to be prepared.

02:22Yeah.

02:23Heat can kill, and you have to be prepared as we go through this heat wave.

02:28You know, not only Chicago, but coming up, Melissa will be talking about how the heat expands into the northeast.

02:34That's right.

02:34And, Bernie, it's actually the number one reason that people lose their life, tragically, in the United States

02:39that's weather-related is extreme heat because it can catch people sometimes who are unprepared off guard.

02:45So that's why we want to highlight that there's amplified risk for heat-related illness this time

02:51because it's the first heat wave of the year, and quite frankly, our bodies aren't yet used to this type of heat.

02:55There's going to be little to no heat relief at night,

02:58and we want to highlight that people who are working outside in new jobs for the first time,

03:03including perhaps people, high school or college students that are working outside during the summer,

03:08just be extra careful.

03:09You can be at an elevated risk for heat illness,

03:11and also that the last day of the heat wave, or actually the day after the heat wave breaks,

03:17can be the day in which most people experience heat-related illness

03:22because of the fact that the heat wave health impacts accumulate over time.

03:26So just because the heat is over doesn't mean the danger is,

03:29so be especially careful of that as well.

03:31AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jonathan Porter.

03:33John, thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early.

03:36AccuWeather Early.

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