Explaining the 'heat dome' and hot-weather health risks

people in southern Ontario and southern

Quebec are getting ready for a hot and

muggy weekend and in some parts this one

could be a record breaker temperatures

in southern Ontario are set to soar into

the mid 30s tomorrow and stay there with

the humidex it's expected to feel more

like the mid 40s and in Quebec this

morning heat warnings are in place in

and around the Montreal area let's check

in with Chris Murphy now at the Weather

Network he has more on what we can

expect well no doubt about it a heat

wave is coming and we have a heat dome

to thank for it so what the heck is a

heat dome we're talking about high

pressure in the upper atmosphere and

acts like a cap or a dome and that traps

the heat and that can promote a heat

wave and that's what's gonna happen

Friday and Saturday particularly that's

all desert heat all that heat right

there temperatures in Arizona have been

over 115 degrees Fahrenheit by the way

and this will also grab humidity from

the Gulf of Mexico so the heat and

humidity more strong are stronger than

it has been earlier this week let me

show you some examples and Friday and

Saturday those are the critical days

Windsor mid 30s feeling like 47 before

things start to settle down back to

seasonal next week

Toronto Friday and Saturday 33 degree

temperatures humidex in the mid 40s and

Montreal low 30 temperatures low 40

humidex so bottom line is you want to

find lots of shade find lots of a/c and

for goodness sakes please don't leave

any children pets in the vehicles and

with the heat of summer really setting

in across the country we've invited a

doctor on the show today to talk about

the health risks of those high

temperatures dr. David Kaiser joins us

from our studio in Montreal today where

that heat wave is hitting and he's a

public health specialist at Montreal's

public health department welcome thank

you for joining us up from a health

perspective what's the biggest concern

as a doctor during a heatwave yeah so

our biggest concern is really people who

we know are more vulnerable to heat and

those include the elderly but it also

includes people with some chronic

diseases that are very common like

diabetes or heart disease or lung

diseases includes people with some

mental health issues especially

people are taking medications for

example for schizophrenia and obviously

includes the very young and we know that

children the age of four are less able

to express the thirst for example or or

to recognize and some of those signs and

so they're also at risk but that's

really what what is of concern to us

during a heatwave because we know that

those people especially when there's a

couple of days or right now we have a

forecast of about three days of hot

weather during the day in hot weather at

night we know that those people have

more difficulty dealing with that heat

now let's talk about the hot weather at

night that is because it continues on

into the night that's some of the

dangerous heat correct yeah exactly and

so it's important to recognize that

there are two kind of categories of

health impacts from heat one of them I

think we we kind of recognize is heat

stroke right so marathon runner a hot

day gets dehydrated the body overheats

and that's a really dangerous medical

emergency but thankfully quite rare and

really isn't what we're talking about in

a in a period of heat like we have right

now what happens to people with chronic

diseases or the elderly is that they get

slowly dehydrated and it kind of just

the heat exhausts the body's capacity to

deal with that and that's why people get

sick and people can die and one of the

really important issues is how hot it is

at night because you can have a hot day

we can have days at 30 with with high

humidity but if the temperature at night

goes down to normal temperatures let's

say between 12 and 15 and a lot of our

cities then people get a break from the

heat and that risk is much less but in

the next few days what we have is

temperatures that are projected to be 20

21 22 degrees at night and so people

aren't getting a break and in apartment

buildings for example or in the middle

of big cities it can be quite a lot

hotter than that indoors because

everybody I think has experienced the

fact that when you have a hot day that

heat stays for a long time inside a

building and so you can have

temperatures at 27:30 we've measured you

know 3540 inside buildings at night and

that's where there's really a big risk

for people also because they're more

likely to be alone at

home and not have the help that they

might have during the day if they if

they have symptoms and what are some of

the symptoms some of the signs from

someone experiencing too much heat yeah

so as I said heatstroke is a medical

emergency and the symptoms and signs are

really for for severe a heat stroke or

dry skin confusion people can lose

consciousness you call 911 for people

who are experiencing call heat stress or

who are experiencing more the the kind

of slow impact of heat during a period

of several days of hot weather are not

that specific and often it's related to

dehydration so it can be feeling

lethargic so if it's feeling tired just

not having much energy but there aren't

necessarily clear clear signs and that's

why I think the important part is

prevention so one of the things is

drinking water regularly and getting a

break from the heat is really the

messages we put out there but the second

thing is to the extent that people have

family friends neighbors around that are

checking on them any kind of change for

the worse and somebody who we know is

vulnerable should be taken care of

because there aren't necessarily

dramatic signs before people really

become at risk for more serious impacts

now you mentioned some ways to deal with

the heat but what are some other

practical things people can do yeah so I

think the really important message

started starting out is that people are

most at risk maybe those who are least

able to kind of follow the

suggestions that we give them so people

who are living alone at home maybe

elderly who may be less mobile they need

help to get out of the heat at least a

couple of hours a day they may need help

to remember to drink water regularly

what we're looking at and there are some

research studies going on right now is

you said practical tips is what what is

the one of the best ways that people who

don't necessarily have access to

air-conditioning or who can't easily get

out to a cool place that cool themselves

but I think there's there's some things

there that we can recommend that are

fairly logical and one is taking a cool

bath or a cool shower a couple of times

a day so that just allows the body to

get the heat out second thing is if you

have a fan when it's really really hot

and humid a fan doesn't do the same

thing as an air conditioner but putting

a frozen water bottle in front of a fan

for example to get some cool air blowing

through and the third thing is just a

cool washcloth so again the idea is that

putting that on the skin allows the body

to get heat transfer heat away from the

body and so a cool washcloth on the

forehead or on different parts of the

body several times a day as often as

needed those are some easy things that

people who don't necessarily have access

to to other things can can do some

really good advice there I want to thank

you dr. David Kaiser for your time today

dr. David Kaiser is a public health

specialist at Montreal's public health

department in Montreal thanks for your

time Thanks have a good day