Too HOT and HUMID to Live: Extreme Wet Bulb Events Are on the Rise

As a construction worker in Florida I would go to jail and be called inhumane if I brought my dog with me in same hot environment that we are expected to work in day after day.

I remember hearing about when the Crystal Cave in Mexico was discovered. It was found 2000ft underground by a mining operation. When it was found, the ambient temperature was 118degF and the place was filled with groundwater. The miners pumped out the groundwater from the cave to explore it. However, being underground surrounded by water, the relative humidity in the cave was 100%. This being at 118degF meant the wet bulb temperature was 118degF. Everyone who entered the cave had to wear a full-body air conditioned suit not only because it was hot and humid enough that the body could not cool effectively, but because the wet bulb temperature was so high above the average human body temperature, anyone who tried to breathe that air without the suit would have water condense in their lungs. It was so humid in that cave you could've legit drowned breathing the air in it!

I have lived in South Florida on and off for 60 years of my 65. I plan to retire in 2 years and I’m out of here as fast as I can sell, I’ve taken to calling Miami ,Phoenix east with humidity. I know I’m older but the heat is getting worse I trained for Ironman triathlons down here up to 15 years ago can’t imagine doing it now. Without air conditioning this place is unliveable.

I survived a heat stroke and what people don't realize is it's not over just because your body cools. Stay out of those extremes is far more important than just coming back down from that heat. High internal temperatures cause real damage to organs and can cause your body to not cool effectively in the future. I suffer in 75+ F temps now compared to as a kid playing very hard in 95+ F. I lost my ability to cool so much that I have to finish my showers with cold water for 1-2 minutes and then still sit in front of a fan for another 10-20 minutes just to cool back down. That's with taking showers that feel barely warm to the touch. My warm showers are cold to other people.

I work outside about half the year and my industry is incredibly resistant to changing the way we work. I've been to the emergency room more than once because of it, and last year someone died. The OSHA fine was barely a slap on the wrist.

I see a lot of comments saying things like "I did this or that in hot temps and it didn't bother me" but they seem to have missed the entire point of the video somehow. It's not just the temperature, it's the temperature plus the humidity in the air. If the air is hot and dry then you can sweat through it and be fine, just drink lots of water. If it's hot and wet tho, then you're up the creek sans paddle because your sweat will not evaporate at a meaningful rate. AC and a dehumidifier will help, but they aren't always available, especially if you're working outside. I live in a part of BC that gets very hot in the summer, over 40 degrees some days but it's usually quite dry so it's been manageable. Over recent years tho it's been getting noticeably more humid and I've definitely been feeling the difference. Things are gonna get rough folks, and I think it will happen much sooner than most estimates since many of them assume we'll make some real changes to prevent the worst, while I assume we won't.

I’m traveling since 3 months through SE Asia, and even though I’m from a tropical country I can’t understand how people manage this amount of heat/humidity in their everyday life. I started to have headaches, dizziness (feeling like tripping) joint problems like never before… Water is not enough… Massive respect for the people who live in these areas

I think these events occur more than we know. I didn't know this science but it's exactly what I've been trying to explain to my son for years. The physical affects of "wet bulb" happen more frequently than studied. I live in the heart of Texas, and our wet bulb conditions wobble quite a bit. I believe we've had a few "events" already this summer. When it happens, it feels like a microwave outside.

If it happens once, the likelihood of it happening again is exponential. Please never underestimate these hot conditions. The decline is sudden and feels horrible. I survived this only because I knew how to stop it by laying in a bed of ice that i spilled out of a cooler in a barely-coherent state. Don’t be me.

The past two weeks here in Northeast Thailand, along the Mekong River, have been unbearable. Temps between 40 and 45 daily and high humidity. Very little wind except for an hour or two before dusk. I've lived here 18 years and never experienced anything like this. Old folks are dropping like flies.

My first time experiencing something like this was when I was a Mail man back in North Little Rock Arkansas. The summers are miserable, about as bad and humid as Nashville because Nash sits in a bowl(Note the map on 8:49 and how the top middle of TN's area has orange and so is LR AR.) It was a cloudy day in the summer and it was about 92F. Most routes in this district are walking routes(Park and Loops, dismounts, etc.), but this particular office has the most riding routes. Roughly 1/8th of my route was walking. I got passed that part without much struggle, the say was cooler because cloud cover and the rain that morning, but the humidity right after lunch time killed me. I got to the gas station a block from the post office and my breathing just worsened drastically. These trucks have no AC and they only have a single fan. Not enough air was moving, even though I only had a light layer of sweat and wasn't really that hot, I was just struggling on the extremely humid air. The weather app I had at the time said humidity was at 120%. Y'all it took the Station manager baptizing me in ice water in the locker room. I caught it early and managed to avoid something serious. 5 weren't so lucky and passed out, that day from the NLR district alone. Mail carriers die significantly more than people seem to understand. Sincerely thank your mail man the next time you see him/her, even if his/her route is curbside only or considered "easy" We all still had to suffer in that heat.

When I was in Death Valley the concern wasn't the heat, it was the arid air. Humidity as low as 0.25%. In the summer it is actually against the law to pass someone broke down on the highway. This was years ago before cell phones came into use, I saw a family of 4 broke down on the side of the road. This was not on the main highway and it might be hours before another car would come by. They tell you to carry 1 gallon of water for every passenger in your car in case you break down. This family had no water at all. I had 2 gallons in my pick-up and I gave both to the family. I said I was going to call for help for them and to drink the water. I said I would return with more after I got help on the way. I even gave them 4 Solo cups i had. I called for help, picked up 5 gallons of water and headed back. The family were all sitting in the shade drinking my water when I got back. The tow truck driver showed up in about 15 minutes and gave them even more water. The dad laughed and said we were overly obsessed with water. Neither the tow truck driver or me were laughing. We knew that death from dehydration can happen in a few days in a normal environment, but out there it can happen in hours. And it's hard to feel it coming. You don't actually feel that thirsty. You just suddenly realize that you have died.

Last year in Shanghai, China for the first time in my life I experienced the heat in a way that I just wanted to run from it. I had to work outdoors, in the sun and I couldn’t think, my brain was literally getting hot and it felt like I was a lab rat which was put into a microwave. That was scary and, again, for the first time in my life, I’m not looking forward to summer

One of the things that I, at least, have seldom heard about in relation to your last question deals with vernacular architecture and building methods. Think of the way old homes were built on the island of Santorini, for example, or the thick adobe walls of old houses in the desert southwest region of the United States, or the passive "air cooling" methods used in homes through out the Arabian desert regions. Modern home construction methods, at least in the United States, are a horrible, unsustainable failure. "Horrible, unsustainable failure" pretty much describes the whole western city layout idea, with its preponderance of asphalt and over-reliance on cars ( another unsustainable mess), and its dearth of trees, sidewalks, protected bikeways, and public transport options. It all comes full circle, and we must deal with climate change in a multi-prong approach that considers all of the things that are contributing to the big problem.

I live in pa and we had so much air pollution going on from the Canada wild fires. They put our air at risk for us to breathe in. Ppl DO NEED TO START PAYING ATTENTION TO THE CLIMATE because nothing else matters if we are gonna die from severe weather change, storms, fires, heat, floods.. etc. we need to all look into this and see what we can do for our children and our children’s children. It’s happening ppl already all over. Just saying

I really appreciate this video. I actually have a degree in atmospheric science, but was not aware of the details about the wetbulb temperature threshold the body can handle. I am from Georgia, which I always thought of as being super hot. I now live in mid-Missouri, and I thought I had become much less heat tolerant or something, but this makes me think it's just the wetbulb difference.

The terrifying part is that millions of people keep denying that the problem even exists. I live in Alberta and I was completely floored by some of the absolute insanity I saw online from my fellow Albertans. Even with huge swathes of the province in flames there were people claiming that the fires aren't real and it's all a hoax simply because they personally could smell any smoke. When I responded to one person with the fact that where I was in Edmonton the smoke was so thick you could see maybe a block. Of course, instantly I was attacked and accused of being a shill for Big Climate whatever the hell that is and being in on it. Of course, the Jewish space laser thing was making the rounds as well. Some of the more imaginative ones from conservatives was that our Liberal Prime Minister was behind it all sending so-called eco-terrorists out into the bush to start all the fires to push his phony climate agenda. Of course, it wouldn't be Alberta if there wasn't some good old-fashioned down-home racism thrown in with Native people were behind it all to scam money out of the government. I can't help thinking we are so screwed.

Japan has been providing small community housing compound for the elderly and poor that can't afford air conditioning. It looks like America's homeless shelters, just beds along one wall and tables to play games along the other, but it does save lives and run less air conditioning. If a person lives alone they encourage people to use the community housing even if they can afford air conditioning so they put less stress on the power grid just to cool one house for a single person during the hottest seasons.

I'm a warehouse worker and the building and trailers I work in are always more extreme in temperature than the outside atmosphere. On an 85 degree (F) day 90% humidity, a trailer is nearly 100 degrees and the concrete absorbs and expells the moisture everywhere. We're expected to work full 8-12 hour days in this extreme environment. I predict we'll eventually see laws prohibiting companies to make employees work a certain amount during the hottest days. The crazies part is I live in New England so it doesn't even get as bad as other parts of the US. Best of luck to all the labor workers.

I'm from Eastern India,the summer temparatures go beyond 40° easily. One thing I've noticed is when the humidity goes beyond 50% it becomes uneasy. I have never experienced this kind of heat .