When most of us picture the U.S. state of Minnesota, we probably imagine snow, iced-over lakes, and guys sitting in little shacks on said frozen lakes, shivering as they haul fish up through an axe-chopped hole. But just this summer, it hit 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 degrees Celsius) outside my room in Minneapolis....CONTINUE READING
Compared to the rest of the United States right now, that’s not even that bad. Phoenix, Arizona has had 24 consecutive days with temperatures above 110 degrees F (43 C), so hot that their emergency rooms are filling up with people burning themselves on asphalt.
Why is heat so bad for us? What happens in the human body outside our ideal temperature of around 70 degrees F (21 degrees C) that hurts us?
How can too much heat kill us?
98.6 degrees isn’t always the same as 98.6 degrees
We all know that the “normal” human body temperature is taught as 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C), but this is just an average temperature, recorded by German physician Carl Wunderlich in 1868. A human normally ranges from 97–99 degrees F, all of which is considered normal. Some individuals, like infants, can run even hotter without issue, up to 100 degrees F.
Of course, this is our core temperature, in our torso where we have our internal organs (and where we generate the heat, from a type of cell called a brown fat cell). In our extremities, temperature can fluctuate more, and can be as low as 86 degrees F (30 degrees C) without issue.
When the outside temperature is higher than our internal temperature, our body sends the signal to start sweating.
“But wait, Sam!” I hear you saying. “I start sweating when it’s, like, 85 degrees outside! That’s lower than even the temperature at my extremities!”
The answer is that 85 degrees isn’t always 85 degrees. Specifically, it can feel like much hotter, depending on the humidity — the amount of water dissolved in the air.
The higher the humidity, the more water in the air, and the less additional water the air can absorb. This means that sweating is…
