A growing number of people are calling for heat waves to be named and classified like hurricanes - to call attention to their importance, alert people to dangerous temperatures, and motivate public officials to take action. Heat waves have become the deadliest type of Emergency Weather in the United States. They are more destructive than floods, tornadoes or hurricanes, and their frequency and intensity are increasing due to global warming.
Overheating is the worst hit to low-income communities, and people sometimes underestimate its risk because it usually does not bring dramatic television coverage.
Supporters of the public warning system say naming a heat wave can save lives and trigger measures such as opening community cooling stations and requiring people to stay indoors.
This month, Seville, Spain, is preparing to become the first city to begin naming a severe heat wave. Five other cities -- Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Kansas City, Missouri, and Athens -- have also begun piloting similar initiatives to classify heat waves using meteorological data and public health standards.
They will use three types of systems that the organizers hope to standardize, and each city's system will be adapted to its specific climate. For example, the "three types" of heat wave in Los Angeles will be very different from the same title in Milwaukee in appearance and feeling.
Kathy Bowman McLeod, director of the resilience center of the Adriana ashter Rockefeller Foundation, said: "some places that are least used to the heat are the most dangerous. The center is taking the lead in efforts to name and classify heat waves. According to the early warning systems launched in six cities around the world," category 1 "is the least serious, while Category 3" will be the "most terrible 10% of heat waves." "For all three cases, we recommend staying indoors with air conditioning on as much as possible."
Kalkstein said that each city participating in the naming and rating of heat waves "has a different set of formulas", which will determine what these categories look like, partly based on their urban structure. for instance. There are many brick townhouses in Philadelphia. The roof is black asphalt, which will absorb more heat.
Any kind of designation will have a series of plans, such as urging city managers to open the swimming pool, reducing outdoor sports, starting emergency heating lines, and staff door-to-door inspection of the elderly and high-risk groups.
Arsht rock and its two-year-old extreme thermal resilience alliance are urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the World Meteorological Organization to take the naming and ranking of heat waves as a standard practice. NOAA operates the U.S. National Weather Service, which so far supports the early warning system, but does not favor the naming system.
The National Meteorological Administration said that although it "does not name the heat wave", it does "appreciate the value of continuous research and participation to promote our understanding and response to extreme high temperatures and other weather events." At the same time, California may soon become the first state in the United States to establish an extreme high temperature event warning and "ranking" system. The relevant legislation unanimously adopted by the state legislature will soon be considered by the State Senate.
The idea for a statewide early warning system came from a report by the California insurance commissioner. "California's' red flag 'warning on wildfires, the US Environmental Protection Agency's air quality application, and NOAA's naming system for tropical storms and hurricanes can be used as templates for naming and ranking heat waves," the report said
In July, arsht rock will release the forecast of high temperature expected mortality in 13 cities and new data on the impact of high temperature on workers' productivity.