Naming Heat Waves

[RealAvalon]

A few years back they started to name winter storms. There was debate amongst meteorologists about whether to do it, what impact it might have and how to rank them.

 

Is it time to start naming heat waves? With climate change there will be more and more of them, more intense and longer. They are the direct cause of massive destruction (increase in frequency and intensity of forest fires for example) and loss of life (both human and non-human, both directly and indirectly). Not only the fires, but the smoke that fills the sky are all impacting on health in a mass way.

 

Severe weather warnings go out now. Would naming them help get people in the mind set to prepare for them, as happens now with tropical storms? And recognize them as possibly needing a federal response, rather than only a local or state response.

 

https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/melbourne-weather-warning/

Edited September 12, 2020 by RealAvalon

[+ harey]

Interesting thought and thanks for that Aussie weather link. Storms are distinct weather events that cause visual damage. El Niño is general term for a warming phase within a larger weather pattern. Do you think specific naming of heat waves would catch on?

[RealAvalon]

Interesting thought and thanks for that Aussie weather link. Storms are distinct weather events that cause visual damage. El Niño is general term for a warming phase within a larger weather pattern. Do you think specific naming of heat waves would catch on?

The article you linked to contained the link I was looking for but couldn't find, on the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance. A number of cities that have to deal with extreme heat events too regularly are members.

 

https://www.onebillionresilient.org/post/extreme-heat-resilience-alliance-reducing-extreme-heat-risk-for-vulnerable-people

[+ bashful]

During Chicago's historic heat waves in the past few decades, besides health, and the inability to afford air conditioning, they found some of the urban poor victims kept their window's closed, didn't sleep outside, didn't go to cooling centers. Presumably out of fear of being victims of crime.

 

I don't see the point in naming them.

[jeezifonly]

During Chicago's historic heat waves in the past few decades, besides health, and the inability to afford air conditioning, they found some of the urban poor victims kept their window's closed, didn't sleep outside, didn't go to cooling centers. Presumably out of fear of being victims of crime.

 

I don't see the point in naming them.

I guess it would be only for comparison of a brief hot thing that gets then displaced from the collective consciousness by a new hotter thing.

So it’s obvious they should be named after gay porn stars.

[Guest]

Interestingly, we in the south have been dealing with heat waves forever and no one cared. What’s even more interesting is that temperature records for hottest temp seem to not have been broken in southern cities for the last decade or two. You can look It up yourself for hottest days in cities like Atlanta. Dallas, Memphis, Tallahassee, Houston....every one I looked up had record highs more than a decade ago...and the peak temps were not as high as I might have expected.

[rvwnsd]

During Chicago's historic heat waves in the past few decades, besides health, and the inability to afford air conditioning, they found some of the urban poor victims kept their window's closed, didn't sleep outside, didn't go to cooling centers. Presumably out of fear of being victims of crime.

 

I don't see the point in naming them.

Interestingly, we in the south have been dealing with heat waves forever and no one cared. What’s even more interesting is that temperature records for hottest temp seem to not have been broken in southern cities for the last decade or two. You can look It up yourself for hottest days in cities like Atlanta. Dallas, Memphis, Tallahassee, Houston....every one I looked up had record highs more than a decade ago...and the peak temps were not as high as I might have expected.

So has Chicago and no one cared until the heat wave of 1995, when nearly 750 people died. At the time, very few older residential buildings had air conditioning. Most of the deaths occurred in poverty-stricken areas where residents can't afford their utilities, let alone the cost of window air conditioners. Even if air conditioning was prevalent, the strain on the electrical grid would have caused it to fail, as occurred in 1999 when an underground transformer exploded and caused an outage. Power was out for more than a week, trapping hundreds of elderly residents in high-rise buildings along the north side lakefront because they could not walk up and down 10, 20, and 30 flights of stairs. To put it into perspective, the entire city of Atlanta has 2/3 the population of Chicago's south side (498K vs 750K, respectively).

 

That said, I don't think naming heat waves is necessary.

[marylander1940]

https://m4m-forum.org/threads/anchorage-alaska-hits-90-degrees-in-record-shattering-heat-wave.150262/

 

The day Anchorage had 90'!

[+ WilliamM]

Never that hot North of Anchorage, especially in Fairbanks and Denali National Park where my brother worked for several Summers. The park is not open year round

 

Lots of grizzlies and wolves there!.

[jonnychgo]

During Chicago's historic heat waves in the past few decades, besides health, and the inability to afford air conditioning, they found some of the urban poor victims kept their window's closed, didn't sleep outside, didn't go to cooling centers. Presumably out of fear of being victims of crime.

 

I don't see the point in naming them.

I live in Chicago and especially remember the 1995 one. It was horrible with all the deaths, etc. I lived in Boystown at the time and the power went out at the now defunct Treasure Island grocery story for days if not a week and they had to toss or give away all the perishables.

 

I think that was the year that started the cooling centers as many poor people did not have air conditioning and died.

[RealAvalon]

So has Chicago and no one cared until the heat wave of 1995, when nearly 750 people died. At the time, very few older residential buildings had air conditioning. Most of the deaths occurred in poverty-stricken areas where residents can't afford their utilities, let alone the cost of window air conditioners. Even if air conditioning was prevalent, the strain on the electrical grid would have caused it to fail, as occurred in 1999 when an underground transformer exploded and caused an outage. Power was out for more than a week, trapping hundreds of elderly residents in high-rise buildings along the north side lakefront because they could not walk up and down 10, 20, and 30 flights of stairs. To put it into perspective, the entire city of Atlanta has 2/3 the population of Chicago's south side (498K vs 750K, respectively).

 

That said, I don't think naming heat waves is necessary.

I don't know how it works in the USA. Is that situation in Chicago one that would be declared a federal disaster with federal aid being made available? Climate change isn't a locally caused occurrence, and it hits different places in different ways. Do you think tropical storms shouldn't be named as well?

Edited September 14, 2020 by RealAvalon

[rustyrex]

I'm not sure that naming them makes a difference. Although weather is becoming way more extreme, it's still hard to tell how much damage it truly is going to do. When Death Valley hit 130 degrees I don't remember hearing about mass destruction on a scale like storm or a hurricane.

 

It's a shame, we are watching the world change at a drastic pace and most of us don't realize just how serious it really is. It won't become a reality for most until it starts hitting everyone's daily existence. When you can't find food in the grocery store, when the air is too acrid to breath and destructive storms become too expensive and numerous to recover from it will be too late.

[rvwnsd]

I don't know how it works in the USA. Is that a situation that would be declared a federal disaster with federal aid made available? It might happen locally, but it's not locally caused...

In the US, Federal and State disasters are called for cataclysmic events such as hurricanes, floods, fires, explosions, and other events where something bad happens and the destruction is readily apparent. The heat wave was different. It took several days for authorities and the public to realize how badly the heat wave affected people. It was definitely a teachable event, as the city started declaring heat emergencies more quickly and began measuring "ozone action days" and "pollution days."

Do you also think that tropical storms shouldn't be named?

No. Tropical storms are different. There are multiple storms each year, they affect a wider area, and there is a definition of what one is. Chicago is not built to deal with 106 degree heat. 106 degrees is an average summer day in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Palm Springs.

 

Interestingly, we in the south have been dealing with heat waves forever and no one cared...

I read several accounts of that heat wave today and it appears Chicago reacted the same way until the people started showing up at ERs and the coroner started getting calls.

[thetruth]

I want a heat wave to be name Chris Hermsworth 'cause he's so freaking hot.

[+ RJD]

I want a heat wave to be name Chris Hermsworth 'cause he's so freaking hot.

 

Heatwave Thor? He can drop his hammer anywhere wants.

[+ Hoover42]

A few years back they started to name winter storms. There was debate amongst meteorologists about whether to do it, what impact it might have and how to rank them.

 

Is it time to start naming heat waves? With climate change there will be more and more of them, more intense and longer. They are the direct cause of massive destruction (increase in frequency and intensity of forest fires for example) and loss of life (both human and non-human, both directly and indirectly). Not only the fires, but the smoke that fills the sky are all impacting on health in a mass way.

 

Severe weather warnings go out now. Would naming them help get people in the mind set to prepare for them, as happens now with tropical storms? And recognize them as possibly needing a federal response, rather than only a local or state response.

 

https://www.pedestrian.tv/news/melbourne-weather-warning/

NOAA doesn't recognize winter storm names and likely wouldn't recognize heatwave names either.

 

Who would use this...The Weather Channel?

[RealAvalon]

NOAA doesn't recognize winter storm names and likely wouldn't recognize heatwave names either.

 

Who would use this...The Weather Channel?

 

How does the Weather Channel decide which storms will be named?

 

To the chagrin of the professional weather community, there are no strict scientific criteria that must be met before a winter storm can earn a name. Ultimately, the decision is up to TWC senior meteorologists. Some of the things they take into consideration include:

• If it's evident from the forecast maps and models that the storm is shaping up to be one of historic or record-breaking proportions.
  
• If the NWS has issued a winter storm warning.
  
• If the storm is forecast to impact an area of at least 400,000 square miles, a population of at least 2 million people, or both.
  

If the answers to all of the above are "yes," it's very likely the storm will be named.

[Islesguy]

NOAA doesn't recognize winter storm names and likely wouldn't recognize heatwave names either.

 

Who would use this...The Weather Channel?

The fact that the Weather Channel keeps pushing the winter storm name nonsense really pisses me off.