Scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory have found that temperatures near the heat limit the human body can withstand are twice as common as they were in 1979. Research published in the journal Science Advances.
As scientists explain, a healthy young person cannot survive for more than six hours at 35 °C and 100% humidity, even with unlimited access to water and in the shade. This is because, in such conditions, sweat, which is the body’s main means of lowering internal temperature, can no longer evaporate from the skin.
The study’s authors noted that such critical conditions have been observed about a dozen times, primarily in South Asia and the Persian Gulf. None of these episodes lasted more than two hours.
But the frequency of such events has more than doubled in the last 40 years. Scientists predict that temperatures in many parts of the world will regularly exceed 35°C in the coming years if the world rises 2.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Five to seven hours at this temperature will be enough to harm human health.
ancient scientists to solveHow can you reduce the risk of kidney stones in hot weather?