This Summer of Extreme Weather Features Flash Floods and Corn Sweat

Rachel Feltman: For American scientist‘s Science quickly, I am Rachel Feltman.

With domes of summer heat that slam on certain parts of the United States and the Hurricane season, you have undoubtedly seen many extreme time stories in your diet in recent weeks. Andrea Thompson, editor -in -chief of Sustainiabibility American scientist.

Thank you very much for coming to chat with us.

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Andrea Thompson: Thank you for doing me.

Feltman: So let’s review some subjects that people could see the titles a lot in the titles, you know, during this time of the year.

We will start with sudden floods. Could you tell us a little about what happened in Texas and how it was possible that these floods become so dangerous so quickly?

Thompson: Yeah, so sudden floods, you know, in a way in the name – it happens very quickly and often takes people by surprise. It happens when you have Really Intense rains on a fairly small area, generally, over a relatively short period of time. And this is essentially what happened in Texas. There were between six and 10 inches of rain in three hours, which is [laughs] Lots of rain. And basically, the soil simply cannot absorb so much water so quickly.

And it can be exacerbated by other aspects. You know, in the cities, you have a lot of roads and a lot of asphalt, and these are waterproof, so the water will collect even more than it would, you know, the ground. And then the topography can also play a role, and in Texas, it was an area with many rivers beds, a lot of steep topography that fundamentally surrounds everything in a single area. And in this case, you know, in a place, in Hunt, Texas, the water increased by 26 feet in 45 minutes on the Guadalupe river …

Feltman: Wow.

Thompson: Which is just one amazing Rising. And it is because there is so much rain and everything is channeled in a kind of this river bed. And people do not expect the water to increase so quickly. And, you know, for reference, 26 feet is more than two floors in a building.

And the water is also extremely powerful. Only six inches of water in motion quickly can eliminate a person.

Feltman: MM.

Thompson: And the more the water moves quickly – the force increases faster than the real speed of the water …

Feltman: MM.

Thompson: It is therefore not exponential, but you get much more force even for each small step in speed …

Feltman: I see, yeah.

Thompson: They are really difficult to plan, and it also takes people by surprise. So we can say: “He will rain in this area that day, and the pockets will potentially have large showers like this”, but you cannot even say, generally, a few hours, “this will bring exactly as much in this place”, because these are so small features in the atmosphere that, you know, the weather models can simply not choose them as far in advance. It is therefore also an aspect in terms of people in a way caught off guard.

Feltman: Well, let’s finish – not a fun note for people who experience it but something at least [laughs] Feels funny to speak. Everyone on Google “corn sweatshirt”. Everyone was talking about corn sweat last summer, and now corn sweat is back. So what is corn sweat in fact [laughs]?

Thompson: Yes, and it is not only the actor who is in the new Superman movie [laughs]Who – I had a lot of jokes about this [laughs].

So, fundamentally, there are heat waves in summer. They perform all the time. And a few waves of heat, especially if you are, say, the western half of the country, they tend to be dry heat; In the eastern half of the country, where it is more humid, you have much more humidity.

Feltman: Swamp.

Thompson: Yes [laughs]. You know, this is particularly true around the Gulf coast, where you have this really abundant source of hot and humid air in the Gulf of Mexico. You know, the humidity level can be affected by the way a season was wet – so we had a fairly humid summer in the east, so everything is really saturated with water, so when it is hot, there is a lot of water to evaporate or sweat plants.

And that’s what’s going on with corn and a few other crops in the Midwest. You know, these crops cover huge amounts of land, and when there is heat, they sweat the water vapor in the air, and it increases humidity, and they call it “sweatshirt”, which is a very funny term but [laughs] very striking. But the Midwest is a little notable for these very high humidity levels, while when we think of humidity, we think, like “Oh, in Florida”, or places like that …

Feltman: MM-HMM.

Thompson: But no, the midwest can get Really Wet in summer because of this phenomenon.

Feltman: Well, and I have the impression of asking you questions about it almost every time you go, but it did not stop [laughs] Being important and useful: what can people do to stay cool in summer and stay safe?

Thompson: Absolutely, so one of the keys is somehow aware of the level of risk for you or your loved ones, neighbors. Young children, the elderly, people who take certain drugs or have certain diseases, especially heart disease, are more sensitive. People who work outside are much more likely for heat disease. It is therefore important to be particularly aware for these people.

Generally, you want to avoid any intense activity outside in the middle of the day, when the sun is at its highest and the temperatures are at the highest. Staying hydrated, wearing loose clothes, light -color clothes is really useful. Be in the shade as much as possible. You know, if you have access to air conditioning, being there [laughs] as much as possible.

And we also have a story about how to keep your house cool, this includes – you know, air conditioning is obviously somehow the gold stallion in terms of keeping things comfortable; It also has the additional advantage of removing humidity from the air. But there are a lot of things you can do with fans in terms of maintaining a relatively fresh house, and part of this is due to movement, the air currents it generates, means that there is more air moving on the surface of your skin, so that it takes the warmth of your body, and it also transports sweating, what sweat is essentially the way our body is cooling naturally. So this helps this process.

You can also do things like making sure you seal the drafts, making sure that your windows are very beautiful and sealed. You can install occlus blinds, or if you don’t even have it, you can even make good old -fashioned aluminum paper outside to reflect part of solar heat. I did a little of that myself in my apartment [laughs]. You know, and there are other tips like this to simply minimize the amount of heat in your apartment and maximize the amount of cooling that occurs for you.

Feltman: Well, thank you for these tips and for filling these important questions in time in time, and thank you very much for coming to discuss.

Thompson: Thank you for doing me!

Feltman: That’s it for today’s episode. If you have any questions about the weather you would like to answer us in a future episode, let us know by sending us an e-mail to sciencequickly@sciam.com. We will return Friday with a fascinating conversation on the future of artificial intelligence – and why you should not panic if your favorite chatbot is starting to talk about its own sensitivity.

Science quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper and Jeff Delviscio. This episode was published by Alex Sugiura. Shayna has and Aaron Shattuck checks our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to American scientist For new scientists up to date and in -depth.

For Scientific American, Here is Rachel Feltman. See you next time!