As temperatures begin to heat up and the summer solstice on June 21st draws near, it’s important to reflect on just how heat and humidity affect us and those around us, and how we can help limit any complications they may cause.<\/p>\n
Though there are various types of severe and property-damaging weather which often tend to receive the most media attention, it is actually extreme heat which is the number one weather-related killer in the United States. Specifically, the role of excessive heat, heat stroke, and heat exhaustion help to make periods of extreme heat a silent killer.<\/p>\n
While sporadic individual days of high temperatures can be dangerous, heat waves are the phenomena that pose the biggest threat to life due to their extended durations. A heat wave is defined as three or more consecutive days with 90-degree temperatures.<\/p>\n
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When a heat wave occurs, there are steps that can be taken to help keep you safe and reduce the likelihood of developing heat stroke or heat exhaustion. One such way is by dressing for the weather; wearing light, loose-fitting, and light-colored clothing on hot days to help you remain cool. Along with this, drinking plenty of water even if you don’t feel thirsty can be a great way to stave off negative impacts. If not water, try to drink non-alcoholic, decaffeinated fluids. If you are dehydrated or at risk of heat stroke or heat exhaustion, avoid drinking cold beverages, as it can take longer for your body to be able to absorb, and also provide a shock to your system.<\/p>\n
Also remember to minimize your exposure to direct sunlight, as sunburns reduce the body’s heat-dissipating abilities. If you must be outside, try not to direct cool air onto yourself immediately after coming inside, as it can actually work to dehydrate you.<\/p>\n
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Make sure to look after those around you, too, as heat can be dangerous for children, the disabled, the elderly, and also pets. Remember that the inside of cars heat up fast, and will quickly exceed the temperature of the outside air. As such, never leave anyone or anything unattended in a car, especially one without the air conditioning running. Additionally, if it is too hot for you to be walking barefoot on the pavement, it is also too hot for pets to be walking on it – grass is a better alternative.<\/p>\n
When high temperatures also mix with high humidity, the result isn’t just muggy and oppressive feeling – it can be extremely dangerous to those spending long periods of time outdoors. This is caused by sweat not being able to evaporate off our skin and help cool us down due to the air being saturated with water.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As temperatures begin to heat up and the summer solstice on June 21st draws near, it’s important to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215077,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74472,94232,94231,74835,94230,28,30,29,2800,2303,93667,94233],"class_list":["post-215076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-extreme-heat","tag-heat-exhaustion","tag-heat-stroke","tag-heatwave","tag-hydration","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-pets","tag-public-health","tag-summer-safety","tag-sunburn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}