One-third of the adult population of the United States will live by mid-century in regions where the heat index will exceed 50 degrees Celsius (about 122 Fahrenheit) due to climate change, according to a study released Monday by the First Street Foundation.
Currently, about 50 counties across the country experience at least one day a year with that heat index, and in 30 years that will happen in more than 1,000 countiesaccording to the report.
The foundation, a nonprofit organization based in New York, published his analysis of more than 120 pages and numerous maps indicating a band of temperatures potentially lethal from the Gulf of Mexico coast to Chicago, Illinois.
The National Weather Service (NWS) ddefines the heat index as the level of discomfort experienced by the average person as a result of the combined effects of air temperature and humidity.
That federal office estimates that the heat index "extremely dangerous", that is, above 50 degrees Celsius, it will affect some 8 million people this year and in 2053 some 107 million inhabitants, this is 13 times more in three decades.
In all the country, the "dangerous days" -when the temperature exceeds 38 degrees Celsius (about 100 Fahrenheit)- "occur most commonly in the southern half of the continental United States and affect a greater number of properties in Florida and Texas"noted the report.
The researchers calculated that by 2023, Starr County, Texas, will experience 109 "dangerous days", and three decades later it will withstand 131 days with those temperatures.
Other counties that by 2023 will have more than 100 days per year under dangerous temperatures they include Zapata, Brooks, Hidalgo, Kennedy, Cameron, Willacy, and Jim Hogg (Texas) and Monroe, Collier, and Hendry (Florida).
The report points out that, in addition to the temperatures themselves, another factor to take into account is the duration of heat waves, defined as days in which the local temperature exceeds 38 degrees Celsius for more than three consecutive days.
The corresponding map shows that those heat waves could extend by 2053 to Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California, Utah, and northwestern Arizona, as well as Texas, Louisiana, most of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi, Florida. and Georgia.
