It’s about to get hot in New York City. The region is preparing for its first official heat wave this year — meaning three or more days of Fahrenheit temperatures in the nineties. The heat index, an official measure of how conditions feel to the human body, will be closer 105 degrees.
City-run cooling centers will be open starting on Thursday, and temperatures are expected to peak then and on Friday. This heat wave comes at the end of an already sweltering July. Earlier this month, a stretch of hot days led to a spike in heat-related visits to NYC emergency rooms.
Research released this week found that New York City leads major U.S. cities in the urban heat island effect — a way for judging how the human-made environment increases temperatures and heat health risks for people. A separate report stated that this month’s national heat wave was directly due to climate change.
Dr. Cecilia Sorensen, director of the Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at Columbia University and an associate professor of emergency medicine, joined WNYC host David Furst on “All Things Considered” to talk about how kids, parents and everyone else can protect themselves during the heat wave.
Their conversation touched on whether outdoor sports such as swimming are still safe to do. They also discussed who is most at risk and whether taking certain medications might increase people’s chances of heat stress or heatstroke.
An interview transcript is available below. It was lightly edited for clarity.
David Furst: We have some very hot weather coming up. How dangerous is a stretch of days like this for the general population?
Sorensen: It really depends on who you are. Everybody has a unique risk profile. For example, people who are elderly, very young children, anybody who works outdoors — people are vulnerable for different reasons. For some people out there in our general population, this is a very dangerous event that’s happening.
Well, let’s talk about the kids,…
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