Two new government resources related to excessive heat.

[elagache]

Dear WeatherCat faithful who are getting a little too warm this summer 

Anyone who pays attention to weather has to have noticed that heat waves are getting more extreme and frequent worldwide.  Government leaders have also noticed and have attempted to create some resources to keep the public informed.  There is now a National Integrated Heat Health Information System.  It has the catchy URL of heat.gov

https://www.heat.gov/

There is some useful information on it, but honestly at least I find it a bit underwhelming.

There is another resource that I do find much more useful.  It is the National Weather Service HeatRisk prototype.  Here is the overall URL:

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/heatrisk/

The observant reader will immediately notice something peculiar, it appears to be only available for the western part of the United States.  More on that in a moment.

From the main page, HeatRisk is described as (and I quote:)

The NWS HeatRisk Prototype is a color-numeric-based index that provides a forecast risk of heat-related impacts to occur over a 24-hour period. HeatRisk takes into consideration:

    How unusual the heat is for the time of the year
    The duration of the heat including both daytime and nighttime temperatures
    If those temperatures pose an elevated risk of heat-related impacts based on data from the CDC

This index is supplementary to official NWS heat products and is meant to provide risk guidance for those decision makers and heat-sensitive populations who need to take actions at levels that may be below current NWS heat product levels.

You can click on the "What's in HeatRisk" link at the top of the page.  From that page comes the answer as to why most likely this product isn't available for the eastern half of the country (and once more I quote:)

You may wonder where humidity is in this process. We all know that humidity plays a significant role in making warm temperatures feel even more oppressive. Unfortunately, there are not an adequate number of weather stations across the country which report humidity values for a long enough period of time to be used directly in the HeatRisk approach. But there are many more stations that report temperature.

Considering how old the CWOP program is, I find this claim more than a bit suspicious.  However, it would hardly surprise me if the next version on this product does properly represent humidity.    Most likely they are waiting for their next grant proposal to be approved! 

If you are lucky enough to able to use the tool, I can offer you something of a cheater to create a listing for your local area.  Here is the URL I use:

https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/wrh/heatrisk/?&zoom=11.0&center=37.85,-122.15&basemap=ESRI%20Topographic&boundaries=true,false,false,false&products=false,false,false&opacity=80

If you change the latitude and longitude to that of your station, that will immediately get you a close up view of your area.  You can then use the various navigation features of the webpage to get the display to your liking.  When you have everything the way you want, you can click on the bookmark link at the very top of the page.  That will recreate a permanent URL that you can use to view your area with the settings you had created.

It won't help you cool off, but at least you will be better informed and hopefully avoid any heat-related illnesses. 

Edouard

[xairbusdriver]

Thanks, Edouard! Hopefully, I'll live long enough to see them cover the rest of the country!

Much cooler this week. Not much risk of >100°F temps. Still, had our air conditioners checked and cleaned. Can't be too safe!! 

[Blicj11]

Thanks for this post Edouard. I find it interesting that in the US, humidity is not included in wind chill calculations. The official explanation from the NWS is, "The National Weather Service formula for windchill excludes relative humidity because tests show relative humidity has less than a 1°F impact on the calculation." Apparently, it (humidity) has way more impact on the temperature when it is on the other end of the thermometer.

[elagache]

Dear X-Air, Blick and WeatherCatters who have been sweating a bit too much this summer 

I'm glad you found the information useful.

. . . .
Still, had our air conditioners checked and cleaned. Can't be too safe!! 

Indeed, we had ours serviced and it is finally working reliably.  Information can be useful, but it ain't anywhere as comforting as cool air coming out of the registers!

Cheers, Edouard