Commentary by Kip Hansen  —  7 August 2023

The month of July 2023 was a hot one – really hot and really hot in many places.  Not even Roy Spencer knows why – it just was.  Is this the start of a new step-change upwards in global temperature (if such a thing exists…)?  We just don’t know and we just don’t know yet.  So, we’ll leave the weather report and the abject-glee of climate alarmists for another time.

But July is the peak of the U.S. vacation season, during which many Americans take to the highways and byways and visit the almost unending list of beautiful and sometimes astonishing National and State Parks.  Some of the most striking (and bizarre) scenery is to be found in the desert lands of the U.S. Southwest.

We can see the same area by expected temperatures in July:

The Pink and Buff areas are hot – very hot – desert:

I have personal experience with all of these deserts. Learned to drive in Death Valley (altitude 282 feet (86 m) below sea level), which I have also seen – almost –  from the peak of Mount Whitney (altitude 14,505 feet (4,421 m)).  Camped and hiked in the worst of them as a teen.  They can be very hot in the day and the high deserts can then be freezing at night. 

So, that is the stage setting for our story today:  “A Deadly Summer for Hikers in the Southwest” – and splattered all over the other mass media outlets.  “At least seven heat-related deaths are suspected in state and national parks during a record-breaking heat wave.”

Clever readers will see the oddity immediately – both “heat-related” and “suspected”.  There were seven deaths – and in each of them, because it was just stupidly hot hot hot, the suspected cause was “the heat”.  And, honestly, that’s fair enough. 

The lede instance is heartbreaking, because it could have been prevented by the journalists who first reported it – even photographed it!

The image is no doubt copyrighted “Francine Orr/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images”, but here is the link to view it.  The caption in the Times is: ”Steve Curry, 71, found the only shade he could at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley on July 18, hours before he died.”

And the story behind the image:  “An experienced hiker, Mr. Curry had been resting at an overlook called Zabriskie Point in the shadow of a metal sign, the only sliver of shade he could find. A reporter and a photographer from The Los Angeles Times offered him a ride, which he declined. “Why do I do it?” he said, in response to their questions about hiking in the heat. “Why not?”” (source: NY Times)  There is more at the L.A. Times, including “It had taken him about two hours to reach Zabriskie Point — and the return hike would take longer — but he said he was mostly worried that he wasn’t keeping pace with younger people he had seen out walking.” “The thermometer at the nearby Furnace Creek Visitor’s Center registered 121 degrees around the time of his death, but the actual temperature inside the canyon was likely much higher because of the radiant heat from the sun, officials said.” 

The radian heat in these desert canyons reflects off the sides. Then, much like the Urban Heat Islands  in an urban setting with brick buildings, the heat builds inside the canyon, creating a “solar oven” effect.

Mr. Curry should not have been out there in that heat, certainly not at his age (or mine) or that time of day.  The reporter and photographer from The L.A. Times did the right thing to offer him a lift but then, when Mr. Curry turned them down, they failed to alert the Park Rangers of this elderly gentleman who, from his appearance in the photograph and responses to their questions (indicating he was somewhat confused about his situation), was already suffering heat stroke.  Another life lost through vanity (Mr. Curry)  and failure of care (journalist and photographer).

“But, it must be climate change, look how hot it was!”  My dear readers, that’s why they named it Death Valley.    The Monthly Report from the U.S. National Weather Service for the Death Valley station shows that every day during July this year, the average daily temperature (Daily Maximum + Daily Minimum divided by 2) was in excess of 100 °F (37.7 °C).  That’s the average!    The daily highs were above 110 °F (43 °C) every single day, above 120 °F (49 °F) twenty of the days. 

Is this unusual?  Is this “extreme”? No, the U.S. National Park Service reports on the general the Weather in Death Valley:  “Death Valley is famous as the hottest place on earth and driest place in North America. The world record highest air temperature of 134°F (57°C) was recorded at Furnace Creek on July 10, 1913. [ emphasis mine – kh ] Summer temperatures often top 120°F (49°C) in the shade with overnight lows dipping into the 90s°F (mid-30s°C.) Average rainfall is less than 2 inches (5 cm), a fraction of what most deserts receive. Occasional thunderstorms, especially in late summer, can cause flash floods.”  All of those conditions, except the record high temperature of 1913, occurred this summer in Death Valley, just as the National Park Service advised visitors to expect.  There was not any extreme weather, it was usual weather for Death Valley.

“In Death Valley, people can easily enter the park without encountering an employee, and cellphone service is spotty. Rangers have adopted an approach that focuses less on controlling visitors and more on encouraging preparation and caution, typically through online resources and road signs.” (same NY Times piece)

The message is repeated on the white sticker in 8 languages.  (A friendly vandal has augmented the sign with a death’s head sticker over the “O”.)

No one should be dying in Death Valley and it is a shame that it happens.  But, people will be people and do stupid things. 

[Personal Plea:  When you see others endangering their lives through this kind of ill-advised behavior, please try your best to dissuade them and if necessary, report the situation to the authorities. You might just save their lives.]

There have been, according to the NY Times, seven deaths in the desert National/State parks this year that are suspected to have been caused by the heat.  Some will turn out to be heart attacks with heat as a contributing cause, some will turn out to be drug related reactions/overdoses, some will turn out to be real deaths from excess heat (heat stroke).  Read the NY Times article for details, but they all seem to be similar:  hikers out in the middle of the day when it was far too hot to be hiking, maybe hiking too far away from shelter without an understanding that it will be even hotter on the return trip.  (I have a known many young people that suffer from this disability to estimate total distances.)

Heat Stroke and Heat Exhaustion are no joke – I have suffered both in my crazy young years and in my advanced years – but through swift action of friends and family, I survived. You should have learned to distinguish between these two conditions in Boy/Girl Scouts or in professionally required First Aid training.  “People with heat stroke tend to exhibit more behavioral changes than those with heat exhaustion. Heat stroke can cause people to become irrational, belligerent, or confused, while heat exhaustion tends to manifest itself more through physical symptoms like heavy sweating and cramps.”  [source] First aid instruction here: Heat Exhaustion and Heat Stroke. 

The Times says:  “Anyone who’s hot and is confused, or has an altered level of consciousness — that’s heatstroke, and that’s a medical emergency,” Dr. Lipman said. “And they need to be cooled down as quickly as possible.”  And medical emergency means CALL 911.

The main difference is that true heat stroke is life threatening and demands medical attention as soon as possible – in the U.S. dial 911. (999 for the UK, 112 for most of Europe, 000 for Australia).  In both cases, get the patient to shade, cool them off with cool water (spray with a hose, wipe with wet cloths, put them in a tub of cool water) and especially if the patient is unresponsive or irrationally responsive CALL 911.

You should have the idea by now.

Finally, kudos to the NY Times journalist, Jacey Fortin, for including this:

“Park data shows that despite the apparent spike in fatalities this year, heat-related deaths remain relatively rare. They are vastly outnumbered by fatal car crashes, falls and drownings. Data from 2014 to 2016 shows that, on average, about 330 people died in national parks each year, or roughly six people every week, out of more than 300 million annual visitors.”  These seven suspected heat-related deaths represent a truly very small number of deaths/thousand visitors and a very small percentage of deaths in National and State parks.

Of course, there is no data provided on the number of visitors that die from exposure to cold in the winter months.

July is the hottest of months climatically.  That is perfectly normal.  This past July was a little hotter in a lot of places, which accounts for the UAH Lower Trop stat. 

But what causes Heat Waves?

“Heat waves begin when high pressure in the atmosphere moves in and pushes warm air toward the ground. That air warms up further as it is compressed, and we begin to feel a lot hotter.  ….  The high-pressure system pressing down on the ground expands vertically, forcing other weather systems to change course. It even minimizes wind and cloud cover, making the air more stifling. This is also why a heat wave parks itself over an area for several days or longer.” [ source NY Times ]

Then there is the “heat dome”:

“A heat dome occurs when a persistent region of high-pressure traps heat over a particular area, and it can linger for days to weeks. Heat domes are typically linked to the behavior of the jet stream, which is a band of fast-moving winds high in the atmosphere that move in meandering wavelike patterns.” [source:  NOAA]

So, what are all the Climate Alarmists gibbering about?  Two things really, as Roy Spencer [repeating link] points out, it was a hot July, a little bit hotter, but that degree or so hotter occurred in a lot of places all once and for some locations under persistent heat domes,  weeks on end.  That drove up the UAH monthly “Version 6 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly” to heights only seen three times before (since 1979, the start of the time series).  That said, it is just a single data point in the monthly averages data set.  Will that be the start of a new trend, a new step-change level?  Who knows?

The oddity of it is interesting – weather experts don’t expect to see so many large heat domes in so many areas simultaneously and for such long periods – and this needs some serious investigation and research  – not the trumpeting of alarm seen so far from consensus climate scientists in the media.

# # # # #

Author’s Comment:

Two of my boys, who are exceptional outdoors men as at-ease in the woods of the vast American Northeast forests as they are in their living rooms, carefully look in to every wilderness death reported in our local area.  They have strong opinions about the failures of people to understand the need to be prepared, to know what they are about and to take even rudimentary precautions in the wild.  When some hiker from the city falls to their death off one of the many local cliffs, a surprisingly common occurrence, they will simply say “flip flops” – based on the long-term record showing that >90 percent of those deaths caused by the “dead hiker” wearing that type of inappropriate footwear (and standing on the cliff edge taking a selfie).  The same class of foolish errors lead to heat related deaths in the deserts. 

As for heat related illnesses, salt depletion or hyponatremia – from excessive or long-term sweating, can lead to gran mal seizures.  In the merchants,  I watched a big (really big) strong deckhand flop about like a fish out of water in such a seizure.  It took six other men to hold him down and keep him from hurting himself on all the deck gear.  The Captain subsequently placed a gallon jar of salt tablets on the Quartermasters desk with orders for all those passing the QM to take a salt tablet each time. 

Please remember, it is now August, the second hottest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.  You may be comfortable in your cool home or office, but when you go outside, you need to be aware of the temperature and humidity so that you don’t cause yourself harm. 

THE HEAT WILL NOT HURT YOU – but you may hurt yourself.  Many of us willingly and intentionally go into a sauna for our health – a sauna  where the temperature exceeds anything naturally found outside, typically 150-175 degrees Fahrenheit.  Some recommend 70-90 °C (which is 158-194°F) [source: nootkasaunas.com ]

Thanks for reading.

# # # # #