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Extreme heat harms health — what is the human body’s limit?

As deadly heatwaves become more common, researchers are studying what people can tolerate.
  1. Carissa Wong
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A person drinks a bottle of water in a vast homeless encampment in Phoenix, Arizona during a record heat wave.

People have struggled to keep cool during intense heatwaves in this year’s Northern Hemisphere summer. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty

This year’s Northern Hemisphere summer has been unlike any other. In July in Mexicali, northern Mexico, temperatures reached a blistering 47 °C, forcing people to remain inside to avoid dizziness and fainting. Across Mexico, a heatwave in June and July killed at least 167 people. In July, a weather station in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region logged 52.2 °C; California’s Death Valley saw a punishing 53.3 °C. And in August, at Iran’s Qeshm Dayrestan airport, high temperatures and humidity combined to create conditions that would kill healthy people in only a few hours.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02482-z

Additional reporting by Layal Liverpool.

References

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