Impacts And Infrastructure In Extreme Heat.

Commuter planes that can’t fly. Door handles too hot to touch. The heat dome crushing the southwestern U.S. This week puts other heat-waves to shame. We’ll look at dealing with heat in abnormal new normal.

People cross Las Vegas Boulevard as the sun beats down, Tuesday, June 20, 2017, in Las Vegas. The first day of summer is forecast to bring some of the worst heat the southwestern U.S. has seen in years. (John Locher/AP)

Super heat wave in the American southwest in the last week. Flights cancelled. Fires unstoppable. Pets wearing booties on boiling sidewalks. Hikers, runners keeling over dead. Temps in Arizona, Nevada, California bumping 120 degrees. Palm Springs, 121. Death Valley, 125. Dashboards, steering wheels – up toward 150. Sixteen of the seventeen hottest years ever recorded have occurred since the year 2000. This hour On Point: Living in the heat dome.

"The atmospheric culprit for the heat is a very intense high pressure, which is itself setting records. Though the statistical databases show this high of high pressure to be an approximately one-in-200-year event, these events have been occurring more often lately—with the last one happening just last year. In short, the background signal of global warming makes the entire atmosphere thinner and less dense, supporting stronger high-pressure centers like the one camped out over Arizona this week, which then tend to get stuck in place—cranking up the thermostat over a multi-state region."

CNN: How hot is it in the West? Let us count the ways — "It's so hot in the West that the scorching heat is breaking records, causing massive power outages and prompting flight cancellations. On Tuesday, Phoenix hit a daily record reaching 119 degrees Fahrenheit, which ranked as the fourth hottest day on record for the Arizona city. Death Valley, California, lived up to its name as it set a daily record at a high of 127 degrees, according to the National Weather Service."

Arizona Republic: Holy cow it's hot in AZ: Phoenix heat feels like death, but these memes are giving us life — "When you walk outside it feels like your flesh is burning off your skin almost immediately or like you've just stepped onto the surface of the sun and not on to your Phoenix lawn. Which, by the way, is also dead from the heat. Sorry lawn. It may not feel like a laughing matter, but at least we can share some witty memes about it on social media from our air-conditioned living quarters."

Beating The Extreme Heat. Stay Cool.

Wear Appropriate Clothing: Choose lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing.

Stay Cool Indoors: Stay in an air-conditioned place as much as possible.

Schedule Outdoor Activities Carefully: Try to limit your outdoor activity to when it’s coolest, like morning and evening hours.

Wear Sunscreen: Sunburn affects your body’s ability to cool down and can make you dehydrated.

Avoid Hot and Heavy Meals: They add heat to your body!

Stay Hydrated.

Drink Plenty of Fluids: Drink more fluids, regardless of how active you are.

Stay away from very sugary or alcoholic drinks—these actually cause you to lose more body fluid.

Replace Salt and Minerals: Heavy sweating removes salt and minerals from the body that need to be replaced. A sports drink can replace the salt and minerals you lose in sweat.

Stay Informed.

Check for Updates: Check your local news for extreme heat alerts and safety tips and to learn about any cooling shelters in your area.

Know the Signs: Learn the signs and symptoms of heat-related illnesses and how to treat them.

http://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2017/06/22/impacts-and-infrastructure-in-extreme-heat

Monday's papers: Extremism in Finland, beer float mess and open fire warning.

Today's papers discuss the perceived rise of extremism, heaps of rubbish left by beer floaters and warns foreign berry pickers about the dangers of forest fires.

Beer floating event in Vantaanjoki in 2014. Image: Vesa Marttinen / Yle.

Daily Aamulehti reports on Monday morning that almost a half of Finns believe extremism is on the rise. In a survey of 3,600 people across the country, 46 percent of respondents said extremist organisations will have greater impact in the near future, while 40 percent said their influence will remain unchanged.

Only six percent of those queried believed that extremist groups in Finland would become less influential. The responses were similar regardless of age, gender or income, Aamulehti said. The result of the survey came as a surprise to researcher Tommi Kotonen from the University of Jyväskylä.

“In reality, the extreme right, for example, has become less active in the past few years.”

“However, extremist organisations have received more media attention recently, which likely has had an impact on how people view their influence,” Kotonen added.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Supo) divides extremist organisations into the extreme right, extreme left and radical alternative movements focused on a single issue, such as animal rights.

According to Kotonen, established right-wing extremist groups in Finland include the Nordic Resistance Movement, the Soldiers of Odin and Suomen Sisu, while the extreme left tends to be organised in more loose groups opposed to fascism.

Last year, a court in Tampere banned the Nordic Resistance Movement, but the decision has been appealed.

Supo estimates that several hundred Finns are active in extremist organisations, while the most serious threat of terrorism is posed by individuals or small groups motivated by radical Islam, the paper reports.

Beer float mess.

A popular summer beer float at Vantaanjoki has caused condemnation among the area’s residents and visitors after participants in the annual event dumped rubbish into the river, tabloid Ilta-Sanomat reports.

The event, where thousands of people float down a section of the Vantaa river in inflatable dinghies and self-built rafts while drinking beer, has been organised since 1997.

Inka Ritvanen told Ilta-Sanomat that her Sunday morning SUP (Stand Up Paddleboard) trip on the river turned into a garbage collection episode.

“I picked up empty cans, clothing, condoms and plastic bags,” Ritvanen told Ilta-Sanomat.

“This makes me really angry. The river and its banks are full of rubbish, and nobody takes responsibility for it.”

According to Ilta-Sanomat, the beer float fan page admits that the event causes a mess that the councils of Vantaa and Helsinki clean up at a cost of 40,000 euros every year. However, the float does not have an official organiser and therefore cannot be banned.

"I assume everybody has a right to float down the river," Ritvanen said.

"But it’s strange that people don’t understand that throwing litter into the water is really bad.”

Berry picker safety.

Meanwhile, Iltalehti says foreign berry pickers need to be better advised by their employers about the dangers of open fires.

The tabloid reports that berry pickers in Iisalmi, northern Savo, have supposedly started fires while preparing food in the forest.

“It has not rained properly for two months here and the forest is like a powder keg,” a local resident told Iltalehti.

“All is needed is a single spark and the place will go up in flames like in Sweden or Greece.”

Iisalmi fire chief Pekka Pirhonen says cultural differences create challenges.

“The berry pickers are here doing a job, to which they have a right. However, their employers should give them training and giving advice as it is in the pickers’ interest too that everybody stays safe,” Pirhonen said.

Last week, former Centre Party MP Mikko Kärnä was criticised for tweeting a picture of an open fire he had built while camping in Lapland. Mikael Jungner, who used to head Yle, added more fuel to the fire by saying he does not heed forest fire warnings, which many Finns follow too blindly, in his view.

https://yle.fi/uutiset/osasto/news/mondays_papers_extremism_in_finland_beer_float_mess_and_open_fire_warning/10328240