52 degrees Celsius: Researchers warn of the emergence of an 'extreme heat belt'

Before the emergence of an 'extreme heat belt' with perceived temperatures of around 52 degrees Celsius or more in the deer warned. The non-governmental organization First Street Foundation submitted one on Monday Study before, after which in 2053 more than 100 million people in the United States could live in areas where such temperatures are reached at least one day a year.

In the coming year, 8.1 million people are likely to live in such areas. 30 years later, the number could rise to 107 million people, a thirteen-fold increase.

Heat builds up far away from the coasts

The ones from the First Street Foundation The region known as the 'Extreme Heat Belt' stretches from northern Texas and Louisiana through Illinois and Indiana to Wisconsin . These are regions far from the coast, where the sea ensures more even temperatures.

The term extreme heat belt is based on the highest heat category of the US National Weather Service, which speaks of 'extreme danger' at perceived temperatures of more than 125 Fahrenheit (51.7 degrees Celsius). The felt temperature corresponds to the temperature as measured by the human body Body is felt , and takes into account the air humidity as well as the actual air temperature.

For their model, the researchers at the First Street Foundation evaluated, among other things, satellite data on air and surface temperatures between 2014 and 2020 , included factors such as the altitude of an area, the absorption of water, the distance to a body of water and to a coast and then worked with forecasts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on the climatic development of the coming decades.