Today’s heat waves feel a lot hotter than heat index implies

Published on August 16, 2022

Imagine you’re eating a spicy meal and someone tells you, ‘Oh, it’s not that hot.’ But you take a bite and your mouth is on fire! That’s kind of what’s happening with the heat index. It was created to measure how hot it feels, but with climate change, things are heating up even more! The extreme weather we’re experiencing is making the heat index fall short in capturing the true temperature and the stress it puts on our bodies. Scientists have now updated the index to better reflect the reality, revealing that it can underestimate how hot it feels by a whopping 23 degrees Fahrenheit! Can you believe that? It’s like thinking you’re in a lukewarm shower when you’re actually in a boiling hot tub! This new information helps us understand the challenges we face as our planet continues to warm. If you want to dive deeper into this research and learn more about how heat impacts our well-being, feel free to explore the underlying study!

When the heat index was created nearly 45 years ago, it was a good measure of how hot it feels under increasing humidity. It still is. But with climate change, weather extremes are becoming more common, and the Heat Index can underestimate the apparent temperature and the physiological stress humans suffer. Scientists have now updated the index and found that the current index can underestimate apparent temperatures by as much as 23 degrees Fahrenheit.

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