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The Heat Wave of 2006

Climatologists who study global warming have warned that greenhouse gas emissions would lead to increasingly frequent and more intense weather patterns, including more hurricanes, tornadoes, and heat waves.

Anyone who spent late July in the San Francisco Bay area in 2006 would probably not find that too hard to believe. A record-breaking heat wave lingered in California this year, remarkable for its duration as much as its intensity. Temperatures hit 110 degrees or more for five consecutive days and more than 100 degrees for up to 10 consecutive days. What’s worse, the heat was accompanied by a freakish blast of humidity – something rarely felt in western states, which like to boast that their heat is of the “dry” variety.

The heat resulted in at least 75 deaths in California. Heat waves are often deadly, especially for the elderly.

While scientists can’t attribute this heat wave directly to global warming, they do warn that this is exactly the type of weather pattern that was predicted and that could occur with greater frequency due to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere.

On average, global temperatures are 1.4 degrees (Fahrenheit) warmer now than they were just six years ago. In fact, the five warmest years on record in the past century all took place after 1998, according to NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies. Researchers say not only should we expect more such heat waves in the future, we should expect the western United States to be hit harder than other areas in this country.

Europe also experienced a major heat wave this summer, and went through an even rougher time of it three years ago, when prolonged high temperatures resulted in more than 20,000 deaths.

To read more about this story, please read the article in the Contra Costa Times.

To read more about this and other environmental health issues, go to: www.environmentalhealthnews.org, www.ourstolenfuture.org, or www.healthandenvironment.org