Baldwin quoted in extreme heat article

AirUCI faculty Jane Baldwin was quoted in a July 25th Washington Post article describing the problems posed by having over 300 heat indexes, each measuring extreme heat by different standards.  Over a summer when worldwide heat records are surpassed almost daily, having no single heat index complicates communication to the world's populations.. “The problem is we’ve hardly ever reached these levels of temperature and humidity in the historical record,” says Jane, “yet we see people dying in that very regularly.”  She recommends using the heat index to gauge the heat stress you might encounter over the course of an average day.  However, since other factors such as sunlight and humidity affect heat, she says it's best to defer to a local index when possible, such as the one New York City utilizes.  Read the article