It's Getting HOT Out Here

Even with the action governments, companies, and individuals are taking to slow climate change, we are all in for higher temperatures. Here's what you need to know to stay safe and well as the planet heats up.

- MERYL DAVIDS LANDAU

Summertime issues like heat rashes and sunburn have been around forever. But with the acceleration of climate change-the 10 warmest years ever recorded have all occurred since 2010, and experts predict that the planet's average temps could soar another 2 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next decades-it's time to consider the serious health dangers of extreme heat, says Elizabeth Gardner, M.D., an associate clinical professor at Yale School of Medicine and a sports medicine expert.

These days heat can affect us in locations we don't think of as hot spots, says Kurt Shickman, director of the extreme heat initiative of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center. He points to the 110°F days the buckled roads and killed hundreds of people in the Pacific Northwest a few summers back. And while hurricanes and snowstorms are dramatic, there are actually more deaths in the U.S. from extreme heat than from other weather-related events, according to the EPA. Heat-related illnesses kill some 600 to 1,300 Americans a year-many succumb immediately to heatstroke, while others die from heart attacks or respiratory diseases exacerbated by scorching days.