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Hot weather
The silent killer
Temperatures soar.
The climate crisis is here.
Many outdoor celebrations have been cancelled due to hot weather.
This is the first piece in a series dedicated to health and weather.
How the body responds to hot weather
When the weather is hot, sweating is the body's air conditioner. A small region in our brain, called the hypothalamus, is the thermostat. It sends messages to millions of eccrine glands in the skin. The glands secrete a watery fluid made of water and some salts, called sweat, from the skin. It is important to understand that the body cooling down process does not start with the sweat, but when the sweat evaporates from the skin.
By evaporating the sweat, the body temperature remains at 37 degrees Celsius or 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
What is the Wet- bulb temperature?
When the hot weather is combined with humidity makes it more difficult for the skin to sweat. The wet-bulb temperature is a measure of the lowest temperature air can reach through the evaporation of water. It combines ambient heat and humidity to reflect how effectively the human body can cool down.
