Working outside when temperatures soar above 100 degrees Fahrenheit can be dangerous for your health, notes The Washington Post in an article today. And that is completely correct, and it's definitely worthwhile reminding readers of that fact. To illustrate the health dangers of excessive heat, the article focuses on the plights of migrant landscape workers and homeless people in Las Vegas, a city that has recently experienced record high temperatures. And exposure to excessive heat is not only deadly to people; as many as 10,000 cows may have died of heat stress as temperatures rose earlier this week in Kansas.
However, the article asserts that "extreme heat is already the deadliest type of weather disaster in the country." The article does cite a recent study that found that deaths from excessive heat in Las Vegas have been increasing. On the other hand, a January 2021 study in Weather, Climate, and Society (WCS), which looked at national heat mortality trends based on data from the 107 largest cities in the U.S., reported that the relative risk of dying from heat exposure has been falling in most regions since 1975.
