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In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

theguardian.com

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Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#21

Post by bellyfullofbac »

lmilcin wrote: post #15
signal11 wrote: post #11

If I understand this right, this is not just the heat, but the humidity as well. The UK Daily Telegraph had an article[1] about how nearby Jacobabad crossed the 35C wet bulb reading threshold, at which point — according to the article — the body can no longer cool itself. I assume Karachi isn’t that bad yet. A cursory Google search showed a wet bulb reading of 27C for Karachi — still very hot but not life-threatening…

The issue with wet bulb temperature is even worse. You don't need to have an average to hit anywhere close to it. Just one single event, wave of temperature over 36 degrees is most likely going to kill millions of people if it hits densely populated area with people having no infrastructure to cool themselves. And no, spraying with water will not help, by very definition.

I guess jumping into a body of water which has a cooler temperature would still help? Jumping into water which is 36 degrees or warmer wouldn't.

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#22

Post by tibbydudeza »

I live where it is 30C during summer (low humidity) and about 10C during winter - Mediterranean climate thanks to proximity to the two oceans (Atlantic/Indian) which differs in temperature.

One of the main reasons why I would never move to another part of the country.

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#23

Post by lmilcin »

bellyfullofbac wrote: post #21
lmilcin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with wet bulb temperature is even worse. You don't need to have an average to hit anywhere close to it. Just one single event, wave of temperature over 36 degrees is most likely going to kill millions of people if it hits densely populated area with people having no infrastructure to cool themselves. And no, spraying with water will not help, by very definition.

I guess jumping into a body of water which has a cooler temperature would still help? Jumping into water which is 36 degrees or warmer wouldn't.

This is India. A lot of people just don't live close to a body of water. Getting any water is a huge issue.

Can you imagine millions of people running to cool in the river? What with elderly and children?

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#24

Post by bloopernova »

The tone of so many articles and comments online seems to be "Shrug, not much we can do about it". Or pedantically arguing about minutia.

Between this and the pandemic response in so many places, I'm not so sure humanity is going to be around in a century or two.

The rich will live in climate controlled domes on remote islands or ships, while billions of people starve, overheat, or fight over scraps. The global "elite" rich have a serious blind-spot though: They never seem to realize that they rely on a massive robust web of interconnected humanity to support their wealth and privilege. From billions of farmers, miners, craftspeople, teachers, to workers of all types, the global rich live at the top of a massive pyramid of humanity.

Makes me wonder if the person who is desperately trying to bootstrap a society on Mars has the right idea...

Sorry for a depressing comment. It's sobering to know that despite having another 50 years or so of life left to live, I will probably die in a food riot or from home invaders looking for water and food.

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#25

Post by twobuy »

lmilcin wrote: post #23
bellyfullofbac wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess jumping into a body of water which has a cooler temperature would still help? Jumping into water which is 36 degrees or warmer wouldn't.

This is India. A lot of people just don't live close to a body of water. Getting any water is a huge issue. Can you imagine millions of people running to cool in the river? What with elderly and children?

Pakistan, not India

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#26

Post by miltondts »

signal11 wrote: post #20
cr1895 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I assume Karachi isn’t that bad yet. This site is showing quite a bit higher than 27C wet-bulb temp: https://meteologix.com/pk/observations/pakistan/wet-bulb-tem...

That’s the site I referred to as well, but I found it a bit hard to use, with the ads and all. Am I reading the map right? Karachi to me shows 27. But scarily for other places there’s 39 and even 41 in there.

Yes, that area (Jacobabad[1], Sukkur, ...) is not habitable without the use of AC/underground dwellings.

[1] - https://www.financialexpress.com/lifestyle/science/swelterin...

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#27

Post by zohch »

> And it’s getting worse. Now it goes above 40C on an average day, and the intensity of the heat is different to when I was growing up in the city; the sunlight’s brighter, more piercing.

This links to: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/05/one-bill...

Titled: One billion people will live in insufferable heat within 50 years – study

Can't they just link to historical temperature records for Karachi rather?

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#28

Post by bellyfullofbac »

lmilcin wrote: post #23
bellyfullofbac wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess jumping into a body of water which has a cooler temperature would still help? Jumping into water which is 36 degrees or warmer wouldn't.

This is India. A lot of people just don't live close to a body of water. Getting any water is a huge issue. Can you imagine millions of people running to cool in the river? What with elderly and children?

Sheesh, I'm just asking in general about the body, not about logistics...

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#29

Post by zohch »

long_time_gone wrote: post #10
3327 wrote: post #2

Stop complaining about the hot weather please and focus on more pressing global issues. Karachi has had 44 C before like many other places. In fact, mean temp of Karachi is 32 C in June - which is not Low at all. https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/pakistan/karachi/climate and 68% percentile high temp is 35 C. The highest temp on record for Karachi was nearly 48 C - in 1938. For sure 44 C is not Cool - but also not w…

This article isn’t about the temperature reaching 44 C for a single day. Where you are sitting in 42 C weather, do you still have electricity? Because that’s mostly what the article is mostly about.

> This article isn’t about the temperature reaching 44 C for a single day.

Well this is the only actual data point it makes reference to, it links to a study which makes claims about 50 years in the future, which may contain some data, but that is thrice removed if it does.

Re: In Karachi, hot weather is normal but 44°C feels like you’re going to die

#30

Post by Retric »

bellyfullofbac wrote: post #21
lmilcin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The issue with wet bulb temperature is even worse. You don't need to have an average to hit anywhere close to it. Just one single event, wave of temperature over 36 degrees is most likely going to kill millions of people if it hits densely populated area with people having no infrastructure to cool themselves. And no, spraying with water will not help, by very definition.

I guess jumping into a body of water which has a cooler temperature would still help? Jumping into water which is 36 degrees or warmer wouldn't.

Water conducts heat better than air. At exactly 36C wet bulb poeple would be running a fever but a large body of water would cool them better than air at 36C.

However, 100% humidity is rare it’s normal for the actual temperature to be higher than the wet bulb temperature. So local large bodies of water might actually be significantly higher than 36C at the time.

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