![]() ![]() In the southwestern United States, days with triple-digit temperatures are arriving weeks earlier than they did a century ago and lingering three weeks longer. Globally, the past six years have been the warmest ever recorded. As greenhouse gases released by human activities continue to increase in the atmosphere, heat waves will become longer and individual days will become hotter. ( Past decade was the hottest on record.)Īmong the many climatic threats that scientists associate with global warming-stronger and more destructive hurricanes, drought, rising sea levels, longer fire seasons-an uptick in heat waves is the most intuitive and immediate. In Paris it had raised the risk of heat-related mortality that year by about 70 percent. Europe’s hottest summer in 500 years, scientists later determined, was clearly linked to climate change. Across the continent, more than 70,000 people-most of them poor, isolated, and elderly-lost their lives. Italy fared even worse, with nearly 20,000. “It was absolutely appalling.” Many of the bodies were not discovered for several weeks.įrance eventually attributed more than 15,000 deaths to the heat wave. (At the time only a few percent of French households had air-conditioning.) Police were called to break doors open, “only to find corpses behind them,” recalls Patrick Pelloux, president of the French association of emergency room doctors. Visiting caregivers found clients slumped on their floors or dead in armchairs. Morgues filled up, and refrigerated trucks and food-market freezers took up the slack. Many physicians and first responders were away on their annual vacations, and hospitals soon were overwhelmed. As the heat built up, people began to die. In France, temperatures rose steadily, topping out for eight days at an astonishing 104☏ (40☌). Superheated over the Mediterranean, the giant swirling air mass rebuffed incursions of cooler Atlantic air for several weeks. In the summer of 2003 an area of high atmospheric pressure camped out above western and central Europe. The circulatory system responds with a massive, last-ditch clotting effort that further endangers vital organs-kidneys, bladder, heart. Once the digestive tract starts to leak, toxins enter the bloodstream. Muscle tissues, including those of the heart, may go next. Fainting is now a blessing, as blood vessels begin to lose their integrity. Unauthorized use is prohibited.Ī heart attack may fell the infirm at this point, but the more fit may persist to suffer tunnel vision, hallucinations, and perhaps the stripping of clothes that, with nerve endings aflame, feel like sandpaper. Sweating stops being an option, because the body has no moisture left to spare. Victims often don’t feel thirsty enough to drink. Even healthy older people are at a distinct disadvantage: Sweat glands shrink with age, and many common medications dull the senses. The prognosis is usually worse for the very young and for the elderly. Some victims succumb with an internal temperature of just 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius) others can withstand 107 degrees for several hours. With blood rushing to overheated skin, organs receive less flow, triggering a range of reactions that break down cells. ![]() ![]() Confused, even delirious, many victims don’t realize they need immediate help. Blood pressure drops, inducing dizziness, stumbling, and the slurring of speech. ![]() A point comes when the heart cannot keep up. It sounds straightforward it’s actually a complex, cascading collapse.Īs a heatstroke victim’s internal temperature rises, the heart and lungs work ever harder to keep dilated vessels full. The human body has evolved to shed heat in two main ways: Blood vessels swell, carrying heat to the skin so it can radiate away, and sweat erupts onto the skin, cooling it by evaporation. ![]()
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