<story><title>India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius</title><url>https://phys.org/news/2019-06-india-heatwave-temperatures-celsius.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajross</author><text>A tub will work, sure, as long as it&amp;#x27;s pulled from a large body of water that hasn&amp;#x27;t warmed up with the air.  Hopping in the local lake is an obvious choice.&lt;p&gt;But in a detached demographic sense: effectively everyone lives in a city in the modern world, and while their housing might not be air conditioned most of the major buildings are.  In an emergency like this everyone would just crowd into office buildings and shopping malls.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not to say this wouldn&amp;#x27;t be horrifying, but it&amp;#x27;s not the kind of existential social crisis people tend to imagine.  Cooling ourselves down in a heat wave, in the modern world, is a solved problem at least as far as keeping ourselves alive goes.</text></item><item><author>jobigoud</author><text>&amp;gt;  fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan;&lt;p&gt;This is scary, what&amp;#x27;s a good way to survive for someone that doesn&amp;#x27;t have access to a bunker or AC? Immersing oneself in water in a bathtub?</text></item><item><author>Isinlor</author><text>These temperatures in high humidity can be deadly even to healthy and fit humans as our bodies are left without a way to cool down. Currently, they have humidity around 10-20% so it affects the most vulnerable, but global warming may lead to making parts of the world literally deadly to every human being...&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wet-bulb_temperature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wet-bulb_temperature&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a thermometer covered in water-soaked cloth (wet-bulb thermometer) over which air is passed.&lt;p&gt;Sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it.[8] Thus 35 °C (95 °F) is the threshold beyond which the body is no longer able to adequately cool itself. A study by NOAA from 2013 concluded that heat stress will reduce labor capacity considerably under current emissions scenarios.[9]&lt;p&gt;A 2010 study concluded that under a worst-case scenario for global warming with temperatures 12 °C (22 °F) higher than 2007, the wet-bulb temperature limit for humans could be exceeded around much of the world in future centuries.[10] A 2015 study concluded that parts of the globe could become uninhabitable.[11] An example of the threshold at which the human body is no longer able to cool itself and begins to overheat is a humidity level of 50% and a high heat of 46 °C (115 °F), as this would indicate a wet-bulb temperature of 35 °C (95 °F).&lt;p&gt;The 2015 Indian heat wave saw wet-bulb temperatures in Andhra Pradesh reach 30 °C (86 °F). A similar wet-bulb temperature was reached during the 1995 Chicago heat wave.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jogjayr</author><text>&amp;gt; effectively everyone lives in a city in the modern world, and while their housing might not be air conditioned most of the major buildings are.&lt;p&gt;The states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh lag the rest of the nation in economic development. This statement is very much not true in those places, and even elsewhere in India. Air-conditioning is still a luxury outside of relatively well-off people&amp;#x27;s houses, corporate buildings, and malls.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Cooling ourselves down in a heat wave, in the modern world, is a solved problem at least as far as keeping ourselves alive goes.&lt;p&gt;People there can&amp;#x27;t afford to not work. Sitting in an air-conditioned space for half the working day 4 months a year is not viable for them. A lot of the work is manual or farm labor that must necessarily be done outdoors.</text></comment>
<story><title>India heatwave temperatures pass 50 Celsius</title><url>https://phys.org/news/2019-06-india-heatwave-temperatures-celsius.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ajross</author><text>A tub will work, sure, as long as it&amp;#x27;s pulled from a large body of water that hasn&amp;#x27;t warmed up with the air.  Hopping in the local lake is an obvious choice.&lt;p&gt;But in a detached demographic sense: effectively everyone lives in a city in the modern world, and while their housing might not be air conditioned most of the major buildings are.  In an emergency like this everyone would just crowd into office buildings and shopping malls.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s not to say this wouldn&amp;#x27;t be horrifying, but it&amp;#x27;s not the kind of existential social crisis people tend to imagine.  Cooling ourselves down in a heat wave, in the modern world, is a solved problem at least as far as keeping ourselves alive goes.</text></item><item><author>jobigoud</author><text>&amp;gt;  fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan;&lt;p&gt;This is scary, what&amp;#x27;s a good way to survive for someone that doesn&amp;#x27;t have access to a bunker or AC? Immersing oneself in water in a bathtub?</text></item><item><author>Isinlor</author><text>These temperatures in high humidity can be deadly even to healthy and fit humans as our bodies are left without a way to cool down. Currently, they have humidity around 10-20% so it affects the most vulnerable, but global warming may lead to making parts of the world literally deadly to every human being...&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wet-bulb_temperature&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wet-bulb_temperature&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;The wet-bulb temperature (WBT) is the temperature read by a thermometer covered in water-soaked cloth (wet-bulb thermometer) over which air is passed.&lt;p&gt;Sustained wet-bulb temperature exceeding 35 °C (95 °F) is likely to be fatal even to fit and healthy people, unclothed in the shade next to a fan; at this temperature our bodies switch from shedding heat to the environment, to gaining heat from it.[8] Thus 35 °C (95 °F) is the threshold beyond which the body is no longer able to adequately cool itself. A study by NOAA from 2013 concluded that heat stress will reduce labor capacity considerably under current emissions scenarios.[9]&lt;p&gt;A 2010 study concluded that under a worst-case scenario for global warming with temperatures 12 °C (22 °F) higher than 2007, the wet-bulb temperature limit for humans could be exceeded around much of the world in future centuries.[10] A 2015 study concluded that parts of the globe could become uninhabitable.[11] An example of the threshold at which the human body is no longer able to cool itself and begins to overheat is a humidity level of 50% and a high heat of 46 °C (115 °F), as this would indicate a wet-bulb temperature of 35 °C (95 °F).&lt;p&gt;The 2015 Indian heat wave saw wet-bulb temperatures in Andhra Pradesh reach 30 °C (86 °F). A similar wet-bulb temperature was reached during the 1995 Chicago heat wave.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>wongarsu</author><text>Every human is effectively a 100W space heater just from being alive. That means you need at least 30W of air conditioning capacity per human to keep the temperature constant (on top of what you need to counter heat from outside).&lt;p&gt;Unless these buildings are designed as emergency shelters for heat waves their air conditioning systems won&amp;#x27;t be able to cope with all the people.</text></comment>