| | Dangerous overheating isn't something that happens only to elderly people.
In the temperate Bay Area, heat is a surprise we don’t quickly adjust to.
"It takes almost two weeks for your body to acclimate to the heat," says San Francisco Department of Public Health's Naveena Bobba. "And given that heat kind of comes really quickly and leaves fairly quickly in San Francisco, our bodies don't acclimate.
People in the Bay Area are particularly vulnerable to heat illness even at lower temperatures, according to Rupa Basu, chief of the air and climate epidemiology section at the state’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. She points out that when heat spikes in the bay, the health effects are similar to what happens in hotter cities with hotter heat waves.
San Francisco’s 2017 Labor Day heat wave made headlines for two consecutive 100-degree daytime records. It was also warm at night - over 80 degrees near midnight both Friday and Saturday. During hours people would normally recover from daytime heat, it was hotter than days often are.
Scientists say overnight heat doesn't only happen during spiking temperatures; a changing climate is pushing up nighttime temperatures overall. That sneaky kind of a heat wave is becoming more common in California, observes UCLA climatologist Daniel Swain.
“The magnitude and frequency of heat waves that we're observing today would have been vanishingly unlikely in a climate without human influence,” he says.
Read the full series at kqed.org/heat. | | |
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| | | Heat kills more people each year than any other disaster. But heat deaths are preventable. Unlike earthquakes or fast-moving fires, heat is something we can predict. | | |
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| | | Do you know the name of the next robotic explorer to set down on the planet Mars? Better still, do you want to name it? If you're a student age 18 or younger, you have a shot at it. | | |
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| | | Lack of funding and a wealth of red tape have been some of the obstacles — but the path may be starting to clear. | | |
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| | | The number of sea lions infected with the potentially fatal bacteria represents more than half of all sea lion rescues this year, according to The Marine Mammal Center. | | |
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| | Join KQED in kicking off the 2018 Bay Area Science Festival with a special screening of our award-winning science series, Deep Look.
Meet the producers and hear harrowing tales of how they captured the fascinating imagery for some of Deep Look's creepier creature videos, including black widows, flesh-eating beetles, owls, ticks and whispering bats.
This event is 21+ and free, but RSVP is required. Friday, October 26, 7-9pm at the Bluxome Center in San Francisco. | | |
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| | | The recently released report described a world beset by climate-driven crises as early as 2040. From President Trump to SNL, here are some of the more interesting takes on the news. | | |
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| Support for KQED Science is provided by the Templeton Religion Trust and the Templeton World Charity Foundation, the S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the Dirk and Charlene Kabcenell Foundation, the Vadasz Family Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the Fuhs Family Foundation and the members of KQED. | | | | KQED 2601 Mariposa St. San Francisco, CA 94110
Copyright © 2018 KQED. All Rights Reserved. |
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