Soil drought can mitigate deadly heat stress thanks to a reduction of air humidity.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Wouters H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8741186 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Soil drought can mitigate deadly heat stress thanks to a reduction of air humidity.
Wouters Hendrik H Keune Jessica J Petrova Irina Y IY van Heerwaarden Chiel C CC Teuling Adriaan J AJ Pal Jeremy S JS Vilà-Guerau de Arellano Jordi J Miralles Diego G DG
Science advances 20220107 1
Global warming increases the number and severity of deadly heatwaves. Recent heatwaves often coincided with soil droughts that intensify air temperature but lower air humidity. Since lowering air humidity may reduce human heat stress, the net impact of soil desiccation on the morbidity and mortality of heatwaves remains unclear. Combining weather balloon and satellite observations, atmospheric modelling, and meta-analyses of heatwave mortality, we find that soil droughts—despite their warming ef ...[more]
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