With record high temperatures becoming the norm, humans are more regularly hitting the threshold of our ability to cope with heat.
The Earth has hit back-to-back historic heat records in recent weeks and excessively high temperatures have lingered across many regions in the U.S.
Austin, Texas, hit an all-time high for overnight temperatures in mid-June, when its low didn’t fall below 82°F.
Phoenix is in the midst of a streak of 110+°F days that could make for the longest heat wave on record.
Officials are warning Californians of soaring temperatures, saying Death Valley could even approach 130°F, close to the hottest reading ever recorded on the planet.
Researchers previously believed 95°F at 100% Fahrenheit, equal to about 115°F at 50% humidity, was the maximum a person could endure before losing the ability to adequately regulate body temperature over prolonged exposure.
A 2022 study from Penn State researchers found that 87°F at 100% humidity was the maximum for young healthy individuals to adequately regulate. Another recent study suggests a range between 104°F and 122°F — depending on the humidity — is the threshold, NBC News reported.
There’s really no magic number for when things get too hot to handle, but a person can start developing heat illness at even lower temperatures than that depending on age, health, the ability to regularly find relief and even the medications they’re on.
Knowing how the body responds to punishing conditions can help explain the best ways—at both the population and the individual levels—we’ll need to adapt. “Our body is extraordinary. It’s able to keep our core body temperature within a few tenths of a degree. That stabilization allows us to thrive,” Kevin Lanza, an assistant professor at UTHealth Houston School of Public Health, said.
The body typically cools itself through a mixture of sweat and evaporation, as well as the constriction and dilation of different veins to move blood around and transport heat from the core to other parts and then be released, he said.
That’s why, while it sounds obvious, water and rest are essential.
Heat illness can shut down or disable multiple systems throughout the body, leading to long-term injury or death. Impacts include:
Sweating a lot and losing fluids due to the heat can severely alter a person’s electrolytes and cause cardiac arrhythmias and even a nervous system response that can end in a heart attack.
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