Éamonn
I just deployed a Mastodon bot that posts forecasts for the most dangerous upcoming heatwaves
You can follow it at
To determine how dangerous a heatwave is, it uses wet-bulb temperature, which is the temperature that a body can be cooled to by evaporation
Sweating works to cool you because generally the wet-bulb temperature is lower than body temperature
As wet-bulb temperature increases and approaches body temperature, people can no longer cool themselves by sweating and will die
LilyoftheRally
@eob @heatwave Mnemonic for my fellow Americans on Celsius temps: Zero is freezing, ten is not, twenty is nice, and thirty is hot.
Éamonn
@heatwave And apologies to Americans, this is a Celsius-speaking bot
If there is enough interest I might deploy an alternate Fahrenheit version of the bot
Michael Bishop ☕
@eob @heatwave I have always believed that if we intend on getting a message across to someone we must speak at their level. Climate change is a critical issue and using Fahrenheit is important so that those in the US understand the message. They also happen to be the biggest contributer to CC. In an ideal world they would understand Celcius but they don't.
So it would be advantageous to also use Fahrenheit .
Éamonn
@MichaelBishop @heatwave Good point.
I have created a second bot, @heatwave_usa , which is for heat waves just in the USA, and I configured it to present the temperatures in Fahrenheit
Morgan ⚧️
@meganL @eob agreed! If anything, a modification that would make it better for Americans would be adding a state or province where available instead of just city and country. I can figure out the numbers, mostly because the posts give good references, but I don't know all nearby cities and if the state is given I can instantly know if this is close enough to potentially affect me.
That being said, this is also something we can look up! In fact that's what I did with the one post I saw for the US
Éamonn
@raphaelmorgan @meganL Thanks for the feedback!
Given the unexpectedly large amount of interest in this bot, I'm planning on spending some time to improve it, and all this feedback is helpful
Megan Lynch (she/her)
@eob No need to apologize. While I relate better to F because it's what I was raised with, there are plenty of tools to convert to C. And we are one of the few countries that still uses Fahrenheit so that's the way the cookie crumbles. 🍪
Thank you for the bot!
Éamonn
@raphaelmorgan Thanks for the kind thoughts!
I've updated the bot as you suggested to add city and state.
I've also added a US-specific version of the bot at @heatwave_usa
Morgan ⚧️
@eob and thank you for listening, and of course the bot! You're doing something very good here.
clacke
@eob According to at least one weather site I read, long-term exposure is deadly already at 32 °C wet bulb, it doesn't have to go up to 37 °C.
37 °C is normal internal temperature, but 32 °C is normal skin temperature, so I guess internals start cooking when there is no cool surface to conduct heat to.
ZîRan
@5ciFiGirl @eob
Keep in mind that this is all based on sweat evaporation being the only cooling mechanism someone has available. I'm afraid if we look at the current overconfident language the bot is using vs. what will come out in the news about any deaths in the various areas with heatwave warnings we will see a big mismatch, i.e. hardly anyone dying even when the bot says things like "people WILL die".
Éamonn
@zir4n @5ciFiGirl Thanks for the feedback. Yes, perhaps the language of the posts is over-dramatic and does not have enough nuance.
A more nuanced wording might use something like "unprotected people" or "people without access to air conditioning". And maybe the wording should say something about how important the length of time exposed to the excessive heat, which is another factor.
I'll see if I can come up with other wording, perhaps citing a reputable source
Sci-Fi Girl
Thank you! This is the clearest explanation of wet-bulb temperatures that I have seen! I am finally starting to understand what it means! 😎
And I will definitely follow this bot!
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