The Lethal Heat Map

A new study shows how global heating is already causing extreme dangerous heat & humidity conditions in locations across the world. High wet bulb conditions, when there is a combination of high heat and high humidity, can be very dangerous to the health of human beings. A new study by climate scientists show how these conditions are beginning to emerge around the globe.

The study, called The emergence of heat and humidity too severe for human tolerance, argues that thanks to global heating extreme humid heat conditions are becoming extremely severe. Many scientists have warned that global heating will lead to dangerous and fatal bouts of extreme heat by the end of this century. This new study argues that those conditions are already here and identifies thousands of instances where previously rare occurrences of extreme heat and humidity have been seen in Asia, Africa, Australia, South America and North America.

Colombia University has created an Interactive Map: Daily Maximum Wet-Bulb Temperature (°C) to plot the wet bulb conditions documented in the new report. The map shows the results of a survey of the climate records from weather stations around the globe. On the map the yellow and red colored locations signify the worst combinations as measured on the Centigrade 'wet bulb' scale.