The Pacific Northwest is now on
the brink of another multi day
heatwave as you're watching this,
if you're in that area,
you might be experiencing it too.
In the worst case scenario that's
been projected temperatures could
reach as high as 111 degrees
Fahrenheit in
some parts of Western Oregon by
Friday before a weekend cooldown.
It might not get that bad, but
it is still going to be very rough.
So bad that these would actually be
record breaking numbers for
the region if those records hadn't
already been shattered a short time
ago during the heat dome of
not that many weeks before.
And when you look at those numbers
when you see 111 degrees
Fahrenheit, you might think well I
live in Arizona.
There's been some heat.
I live in California,
it gets hot here too.
But it's not necessarily
the same thing.
Tyler Kranz is a meteorologist who
responded to these arguments
saying, we'll often hear people
say, who cares if it's 106 or 108.
It gets this hot in Arizona
all the time?
Well, people in Arizona have air
conditioning.
Here in the Pacific Northwest a lot
of people don't.
You can't really compare us to
the desert Southwest.
Now because there's so little
ability on the individual level in
people's homes to deal with heat of
this magnitude, the governor
Kate Brown has declared a state of
emergency over the heat activated
emergency operation center, citing
the potential for disruptions to
the power grid and transportation.
City and county governments
are opening cooling centers and
misting stations and public
buildings, extending public library
hours and waving bus fare for
those headed to cooling centers.
So we're going to go a little bit
broad on this in just a little bit,
but I wanted
to give you a chance to get in Ben.
We don't know if the heatwave is
going to be as bad as the last one.
It's looking like it might not be
but what are your thoughts about
the current state of things.
>> Yeah,this is one of those areas
of climate change that I think
when people think climate change,
they think like deadly hurricanes,
they think extreme flooding and
stuff like that.
But the two most deadly things from
In climate change, our air
pollution, and heat waves, where
what they do, is they take people
who are already at risk, right?
People with disabilities, people
who are elderly, and children who
are sensitive to things like heat,
and air quality and
puts them in a position where a lot
of them end up dying because
of extreme heat because of poor air
quality and things like that.
And you get these mass populations
of people who are suffering extreme
health effects.
And especially in the middle of
a homelessness crisis here in
the United States, it puts us in
an even more difficult situation,
and during a pandemic, I mean,
how many hospital beds are open for
people who are suffering
from a heat stroke, or something.
We're really just put at the brink
right now.
And Ultimately
we don' have the systems of support
in place that we really need.
And there's not,
to make matters worse, I bet air
conditioners have probably gone up
in price over the past three months
in the Pacific North West.
>> Yeah, and we report on like
these crises when they hit.
But as with so many other topics,
I have this sinking feeling that,
next year is not going to
be better.
It's been going around like memes,
it's the hottest summer ever
enjoy it.
It's the coolest summer for
the rest of your life.
That's the sort of thing
that we're,
really looking forward to here.
And because we're on the brink of
this heat wave, I wanted to go
back to the last one,
which we talked about quite a few
times here on the Damage Report.
It turns out that it is likely that
more people died here in the
United States than was expected.
When you do an analysis of excess
deaths in two different states and
Washington and Oregon,
you can take a look here.
The spikes that hit during
the heatwave.
Now, some of the past big spikes
were caused by things like
COVID sort of understandably.
But something like 600 more people
than expected died in those two
states during the heatwave that is
three times higher than
the official state counts
of heat related deaths.
So officially on the record
a couple 100 people died, it's
a massive tragedy, but it could
actually be much worse than that.
Now we're hoping that this heatwave
won't be as bad as that one, but
this is really just the beginning.
I mean we're focusing on the
Pacific Northwest because you don't
expect the heat there but, as Ben
is pointing out this is everywhere.
Arizona was massively hit by heat
in California we had it too.
It's really difficult to escape it.
Any other thoughts Ben.
>> Yeah, I think like
the one thought,
I'll take this a step further in
terms of do murmuring, right.
We're in the middle of a pandemic
right now of coronavirus, but
one of the things that changes when
you have changing climate is
changing patterns of things
like mosquito populations, right?
And they change where they are, and
there's some pretty nasty bugs out
there like Dengue fever, for
example, that could very easily
make their way to the United States
and become endemic here.
As these patterns change with
weather, so to these patterns
of mosquito populations change, and
that could lead to new pandemics of
things that have been floating
around In the global south for
a while.
And they might just find their way
here in the United States and
put us even further past
the brink that we're already at.
>> Yeah.
And unfortunately, [COUGH] if we
are hit by things like that we've
already demonstrated as a society,
that we're not willing to do what's
necessary to protect ourselves.
So that's exciting.
Can't wait for
the Murder Hornets to return.
Yeah. So, look,
I hope that the Pacific Northwest
gets through this.
It seems like the government is
a little bit more prepared for
it this time.
But buckle up.
It's just like the the wildfires
in California.
This is not a one time thing that
we just have to sort of
give a stiff upper lip and get
through it is now the new normal.
[MUSIC]