the highest recorded wet bulb temperatures in the world occur in india, jsyk. in odisha, they’ve hit 34.6 degrees celsius. the human survivability limit is 35 degrees celsius but the body faces significant risks, potentially fatal risks, even at 30 degrees as it starts failing to cool itself, like i’m talking organ failure levels of risk. climate change isn’t coming to peak, it’s been in the global south where you can’t see it or feel it.
imagine temperatures that high and humidity as high as 75%—you make more heat than you can ever cool. your sweat cannot evaporate fast enough. you literally boil alive. heat deaths in india are underreported and they already hit the thousands. there is no plan, for a nation of almost 2 billion people. no plan. nothing.
Translations for people because science communication is hard and even I messed this up initally.
Wet bulb temperature is not the ambient temperature.
Wet bulb temperature is the lowest temperature attainable by water evaporation. I.e. the THEORETICAL lowest temperature the human body can maintain based on the ambient humidity and temperature. The source I found cites the lowest wet bulb temperature that is dangerous as 88°F (~31°C) with 95°F(35°C) as the absolute limit of human survival. As OP said you are producing more heat than you can expell at those temperatures. You have to understand that you CANNOT cool down in that kind of heat even with a fan or by standing in the shade. Fans cool us by speeding up the process of evaporation which at high enough humidities it cant do. You are entirely reliant on having a functional AC unit and having power to said AC unit, just speculating here but this is probably why you see heat related deaths jump in urban blackouts.
Not to mention high wet bulb temps also impact structures and can make certiain structures, esspecially old or code violating ones, dangerous!
