19 July 2023 , 19:21
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An alarming claim has been made by a meteorologist who said that an American city has become "one of the first" places in the world to be deemed "uninhabitable without aircon".
Laura Tobin, said that Phoenix, Arizona is the worst off area, as it is currently battling a a severe heatwave, with almost one in three Americans under some form of heat warning due to the deadly La Niña phenomenon.
A dangerous 19th straight day of scorching heat in Phoenix set a record. The city's record streak of 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43.3 Celsius) or more stood out even amid sweltering temperatures across the globe.
No other major city – defined as the 25 most populous in the United States – has had any stretch of 110-degree (43.3-degree) days or 90-degree (32.2-degree) nights longer than Phoenix
Laura, known for her work as a weather broadcaster on ITV's daily news programme, Good Morning Britain, made the bold statement during the show on Wednesday morning.
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Phoenix, Arizona, is facing a severe heatwave, with nearly one in three Americans under heat warnings due to La Niña (AFP via Getty Images)She pointed to a luminous, multi-coloured map displaying the extreme heat across America and emphasized the significance of the ongoing heat dome in the western region.
The pavements in Phoenix have reached a staggering 71 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Fahrenheit), while nighttime temperatures have barely dipped below 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) for days.
Laura said: "Phoenix has broken a record, they have had 19 days where they have had consecutive temperatures above 43 Celsius, 110 Fahrenheit. They are one of the first cities in the world to become uninhabitable unless they have air conditioning. And many areas don’t”
The heatwave may start to have an impact on people's health as not it is not only the brutal daytime highs that are deadly. The lack of a nighttime cooldown can rob people without access to air conditioning of the break their bodies need to function properly.
Heatwaves are occurring more frequently and are becoming more intense and are resulting in infrastructure breakdown, human health issues and fatalities (AFP via Getty Images)On Monday, Phoenix also set a record for the hottest overnight low temperature: 95 F (35 C).
Heat strokes, cardiovascular disease, renal disorders are common causes of deaths during heatwaves. In addition, for those regions with elevated pollution levels, the heatwaves can have a compounded effect on health and put people at added risk
While some viewers expressed genuine concern over the severity of the heatwave and its potential implications for human health, there were also climate deniers who criticized Laura Tobin for "fear-mongering" with her warnings.
Nonetheless, many experts agree that the current heatwave is a huge cause for concern, amid the backdrop of climate change.
Dr Karsten Haustein, Climate Service Center Germany, said: “Both length and intensity of heatwaves increases as long as we keep warming the planet by virtue of emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. It’s simple physics and nothing will change that.
"El Niño and particularly rare atmospheric circulation anomalies (aka unusual large scale weather pattern) have the potential to exacerbate the problem. Should some of the changing weather patterns turn out to be driven by the warming itself, some regions may be seeing more drastic warming and/or drying than other places.
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“Heat waves are a silent and invisible killer. We don't often see the impact that they have had on human health until the mortality statistics are published many months later.”"
Unfortunately, the extreme heat has already claimed a life in Texas, Arizona's neighboring state. Victor Ramos, a 67-year-old resident of Houston, became the first reported death linked to the scorching heatwave, succumbing to accidental hyperthermia on June 24.