Further to the reported onslaught of "deadly" hot weather in the tropics, I show here a J-shaped plot of Thai Central valley hot season death rate vs. maximum daily temperature. We note that the least deadly temperature is about 33-34. This translates to an average daily temperature of about 28-29. The death rate increases about ten percent when daily Tmax hits the upper 30s. These data are all-age, elder rates reportedly are optimum at lower temps.
When we think that many deaths occur at the end of a long lingering illness we should ask whether hot-weather induced tipping point death should be considered a heat-related death rather than in many cases a benign heat-accelerated death.
And why doesn't anyone mention the threat so close to the heart of most tropical people, namely more frequent cool weather?
in tropical middle income Thailand from 1999 to 2008
Benjawan Tawatsupa & Keith Dear & Tord Kjellstrom &
Adrian Sleigh
Global risk of deadly heat Camilo Mora, Bénédicte Dousset, Iain R. Caldwell, Farrah E. Powell, Rollan C. Geronimo, Coral R. Bielecki, Chelsie W. W. Counsell, Bonnie S. Dietrich, Emily T. Johnston, Leo V. Louis, Matthew P. Lucas, Marie M. McKenzie, Alessandra G. Shea, Han Tseng, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Lisa R. Leon, Ed Hawkins & Clay Trauernicht
Nature Climate Change 7, 501–506 (2017) doi:10.1038/nclimate3322
Global risk of deadly heat Camilo Mora, Bénédicte Dousset, Iain R. Caldwell, Farrah E. Powell, Rollan C. Geronimo, Coral R. Bielecki, Chelsie W. W. Counsell, Bonnie S. Dietrich, Emily T. Johnston, Leo V. Louis, Matthew P. Lucas, Marie M. McKenzie, Alessandra G. Shea, Han Tseng, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Lisa R. Leon, Ed Hawkins & Clay Trauernicht
Nature Climate Change 7, 501–506 (2017) doi:10.1038/nclimate3322
