84th AMS Annual Meeting

Wednesday, 14 January 2004
Procedures Established by the National Weather Service Forecast Office New Orleans/Baton Rouge, Louisiana Regarding the Operational Heat Stress Assessment System
Hall 4AB
Paul Trotter, NOAA/NWS, Baton Rouge, LA; and D. Griffin and M. Farver
Poster PDF (16.6 kB)
Excessive heat has been a stifling influence over the past century. The severity of its wrath is only now coming to fruition. Each year during the summer season, people are falling victim to severe heat disorders. In fact, during a normal year, around 175 people die from over-exposure to extreme torrid temperatures. As a result of these tragic events over the past several decades, scientists (predominantly climatologists and meteorologists) have been examining this phenomena closely in an effort to lessen these unfortunate results. For example, within the last three years, the National Weather Service (NWS), in association with the University of Delaware and Kent State University, has begun a test and evaluation for an Operational Heat Stress Assessment System (OHSAS). It is believed that the results from this endeavor will ultimately improve the accuracy of recognizing and predicting environments conducive to dangerous heat conditions in an effort to reduce the likelihood of unfortunate heat related mortalities.

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