The big ABC of heat - Part 1 Ever wondered what kind of weather whiner you are?
No one can avoid the heat in summer. Reason enough to compile some useful and useless facts about the heat. Part 1 on temperature records, misconceptions and physical heat stress - voilà.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- Switzerland is in for a hot weekend. The federal government warns of a heatwave with local temperatures of up to 35 degrees.
- blue News explains everything you need to know about summer and heat in a two-part heat ABC - with a wink.
- You can find the second part with the letters N to Z here.
A for all-time record
The highest temperature in this country was reached in the hot summer of 2003: 41.5 degrees were measured at the weather station in Grono in southern Grisons.
B for mountains
Looking to cool off in the mountains? Generally always a good idea, as Roger Perret, meteorologist at the Meteonews weather service, told blue News. It's usually a few degrees cooler at altitude than in the lowlands.
But there is one caveat: "The solar radiation is naturally very intense at this time of year," said Perret. "The temperature therefore feels much warmer in the sun." (see also >> Perceived temperature)
C for Celsius
In Switzerland, the temperature is measured in degrees Celsius. Logo, right? That's the standard all over the world. Except in the USA, where the Fahrenheit system from the 18th century is still used, which the rest of the world has long since abandoned.
The Celsius measurement system has several advantages, as it makes it easy to remember the freezing and boiling points of water: At zero degrees it freezes, at 100 degrees it boils.
In the USA, on the other hand, water freezes at 32 degrees and boils at 212 degrees. You can do that.
D for dome
The heat that is gripping Switzerland these days has also given rise to the term "heat dome". What does this mean? Put simply, a heat dome forms when an area of high pressure traps the heat in a region like a lid.
According to MeteoSwiss, the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology, high pressure pushes the air mass to the ground over a large area, drying it out and warming it up. At the same time, warm air from the Sahara is being brought in from France and Spain. The high is thus increasingly filled with warm and ultimately hot air, making it "more and more like a large dome of warm or hot air".
When a heat dome develops, this often leads to a significant >> heat wave. But you could have guessed that already.
E for ice bathing
If nothing else really helps, then an ice bath may bring the hoped-for cooling. But the price is high, as blue News editor Bruno Bötschi's self-experiment shows.
F for fish
Not only humans but also animals suffer from the heat. Fish are in a particularly uncomfortable situation: if streams and rivers dry up, they cannot escape. In the equally hot summer of 2022, fish had to be relocated in the Töss Valley in Zurich, for example. You can see how the experts went about it in the report below.
G for perceived temperature
The temperature shown on the thermometer often doesn't match the way your body feels. The reason: not everyone feels warm or cold in the same way.
Meteorologists are therefore familiar with the perceived temperature: a constructed measurement that attempts to "reflect this sensation in a number", as SRF "Meteo" puts it.
In addition to the wind, humidity, solar radiation, cloud cover, level of activity, height, weight and clothing also have an effect on the perceived temperature.
H for hot day
Of course, you can also work up a sweat at 29 degrees. However, we only officially call it a heat day when the temperature exceeds 30 degrees.
I for errors
Drink as cold a drink as possible to cool down quickly? Not true, says nutritionist Christine Brombach from the ZHAW University of Applied Sciences at SRF: "Cold drinks may cool you down at first, but the body then needs energy to warm the liquid back up to body temperature." The hoped-for effect therefore fizzles out.
Even the well-intentioned advice to avoid coffee, as it dehydrates the body, is not correct: "It's better to drink coffee than nothing at all," says Brombach. It is particularly important that the drinks are unsweetened, because otherwise the body needs water to release the sugar again.
There is no clear answer to the question of whether long or short clothing is better in the heat: the decisive factor is the fabric. Cotton, silk and linen are suitable, as is very thin sheep's wool. These fabrics absorb perspiration and quickly release it back into the air.
J for complaining
Everyone knows that complaining is useless. And yet we like to sing a lament when it's too hot for us.
A few years ago, psychologist Michael Thiel explained to the Süddeutsche Zeitung that complaining is part of being human . And when it comes to the weather, it is simply too tempting to do without it: There is simply no weather situation that is not worth complaining about.
The expert distinguishes between four types of weather complainers:
- Firstly, there are relief whiners: "They implode inside because of the heat and have to communicate this. This is then a psychological pressure release."
- There are also solidarity whiners who simply enjoy being able to "have a moan with others".
- Attention whiners, on the other hand, simply want to be the center of attention: "These are the people for whom everything is much worse and who are even worse off than everyone else."
- And last but not least, there are the habitual complainers. "They have an automatic whining mechanism and complain about every weather situation - and actually about everything else."
So, which type are you?
K for climate crisis
Yes, the climate crisis is also bringing more heat to Switzerland. Scientists are in no doubt about that. The years 2013 to 2022 were already 2.5 degrees warmer than the average for the pre-industrial period (1871 to 1900), according to MeteoSwiss. Every decade since the 1960s has been warmer than the previous one. And: "The seven warmest years were all measured after 2010." The coldest years, on the other hand, all date back to before 1900.
July 3, 2023 was the hottest day ever measured worldwide, and July was already the hottest month since measurements began. The climate crisis is real.
And Switzerland is one of the countries that, according to forecasts, is also warming at an above-average rate. More than twice as much as the global average.
L for lethargy
It's a well-known fact that the heat is literally overwhelming. But where does this lethargy actually come from? It's simple: your body goes the extra mile to cool you down. And that drains you.
"The body has to work hard, especially in the sun, to maintain a constant, normal internal temperature," explains doctor Michele Casey inScientific American.
For example, the body dilates the blood vessels when it is hot, allowing more blood to flow just below the surface of the skin. This allows warm blood to cool down, explains Casey. Incidentally, this also explains why your face reddens when you are hot.
Sweating also puts a strain on the body. To cope with all this, your heart has to beat faster and your metabolism is boosted. All this makes you really tired.
M for midday heat
Another >> misconception that persists: The heat is at its greatest at midday. This is not true, because in our latitudes the highest temperatures in summer are reached between 4 and 6 p.m., as MeteoSwiss notes.
The reason: even if the sun's rays are strongest at midday, the setting sun continues to heat up the ground throughout the afternoon, which in turn heats up the air.
It is only towards evening that the point is reached at which the solar radiation is less than the radiation, and the air temperature begins to cool down. MeteoSwiss concludes: "So we should talk about the evening heat here."
