Heat is the leading cause of climate-related deaths in the country, but knowing how deadly it is? That’s not as clear.
The Centers for Disease Control counted roughly 2,300 heat-related deaths last year, with more than three-fourths of them from six states that included California. A study from Texas A&M, however, projects the actual number could be four times greater, with approximately 11,000 Americans dying from extreme heat last year.
A new pilot program in California is in the works to create a revamped heat warning system.
“Through that, the state of California has pledged to make their information about EMS visits and all sorts of that kind of information more available to communities more quickly,” V. Kelly Turner, Associate Professor of Urban Planning at UCLA & Associate Director of the Luskin Center for Innovation, said.
Turner says we can get a better understanding of how extreme heat is affecting us as it’s happening, which could create more immediate heat protocols to protect people at home, at schools and at work. She says communities are already trying out efforts to battle the heat
“Communities everywhere are tinkering around with some good ideas like trying to plant more trees or trying to get mechanical cooling like air conditioning and heat pumps into people’s homes or get cooling centers in communities in places where people actually go. Those are some good ideas. However, we need to do a better job at getting people specific information,” Turner said.
New research in the publication, Nature, led by Jennifer Vanos from the School of Sustainability, Arizona State University, looks at a person’s distinct physiology, which could then determine how we individually react to temperature and humidity on any given day.
Turner explains it like this:
“I see a future where everyone has not only their weather app on their phone but also another app maybe that draws in some of that personal data and it can give them really detailed information. For instance, we could say today it’s 100 degrees, 60% humidity and until 10 a.m., it is perfectly safe for you to go to on a run if you are in the shade or you could walk in the sun. But after that, you should probably stay inside or get somewhere cool because it’s not safe to do either,” she said.
She points to how this might help outdoor workers like those in construction or agriculture, and in turn, forecast policies needed to help these workers.
Los Angeles, which has its own Heat Officer, and Los Angeles County are expected to soon release Heat Action Plans.
The state of California already has one.
Beginning only a few months back, it allowed local governments, community-based groups and others to apply for grants to help create projects and cooling strategies like adding shade or making buildings more surface reflective through the Extreme Heat and Community Resilience Program.
Turner says her group at UCLA recently received funding through NOAA to have a Center for Heat Resilient Communities, which will be convening teams of experts throughout the United States to create a blueprint for what a heat resilient community looks like and then create a roadmap for actions that communities can do to get prepared.
She says they will be field testing with 30 communities over the next three years. Information on this program can be found online.