The 2021 Western North America heat wave was a wake-up call for many Washington and Oregon state residents that climate change is sitting at their door. While not as extreme as last year’s blistering heat, the National Weather Service issued another excessive heat warning for the greater Vancouver area in July 2022.
Dmitri Kalashnikov, an environmental and natural resource sciences Ph.D. candidate at WSU Vancouver, says the Pacific Northwest can expect heat waves to be common throughout the region for the foreseeable future.
“… I realized we’re very lucky to have air conditioning year round, and only when it went out did we realize how uncomfortable it can be.” – Hannah Burbach
“In general, our climate is getting warmer. We are seeing a long-term increase in days above 90 degrees every year in Portland. The official station, which is the Portland Airport, has about 80 years of records right now; in that 80 years we’ve basically doubled the number of days in a given year that sees 90 degrees or hotter weather, from around eight days per year to now around 17 days per year above 90,” Kalashnikov said. “Even without the extreme patterns, it’s just hotter overall and it gets hotter more frequently with climate change.”
According to Kalashnikov, increased temperatures also dry out vegetation, which can worsen fire conditions and increase the potential of permanently altering the landscape.
“If there are more frequent fires, then the previous species which used to live in that location might not come back. A forest might be replaced by shrubs or different kinds of trees are more adapted to a high frequency of fires,” Kalashnikov said.
Now is the time for Washington residents to find ways to adapt to the warming climate, said Kalashnikov. As extreme summer weather conditions are not going away any time soon and the environment is changing rapidly, the ability to stay safe from the heat relies heavily on socioeconomic factors.
Linda Eddy, Academic Director of WSU Vancouver’s nursing programs and Associate Dean for the College of Nursing, said extreme heat is harmful to the human body in numerous ways, and can potentially become fatal.
“What we usually hear of is called heat exhaustion. In the medical world, we usually call it heat stress. The most common is basic dehydration, and that’s loss of bodily fluids. When it’s really hot, dehydration can cause us to feel thirsty and to have a headache. That’s one type of heat stress, but another common type of heat stress is loss of salt from our body because of sweating, and that type of heat stress is more likely to cause muscle cramping, nausea, dizziness, those sorts of neurologic problems. And unfortunately, if you don’t intervene at the time you have heat stress, it can go on to lead to heat stroke, which can actually be fatal,” Eddy said. “Heat stroke can look like seizures or convulsions or really high body temperature, like 104 degrees or above and really red hot skin.”
Eddy said the best ways to prevent heat exhaustion are to drink water and fluids such as Gatorade or Pedialyte and to stay indoors in air-conditioned spaces whenever possible. Eddy also recognized that not everyone has access to air conditioning, and those populations especially are at an even higher risk of illness or death during extreme heat events.
“Don’t forget about people and their pets. We need to be mindful of the older adults and the families with young children that live around us. Take the time to go out there and make sure that those individuals have a plan for what to do and that they know about the cooling centers. That’s true for our faculty and students and staff here at WSU Vancouver,” Eddy said. “I know that our libraries, a lot of our churches and our community centers are set up as cooling centers [during heat- waves].”
The Clark Regional Emergency Services Agency has information on cooling centers in the area that are open when temperatures are dangerous. Visit their webpage at http://cresa911.org/emergency-manage- ment/emergency-preparedness/cooling_centers/ for more information.
Hannah Burbach, WSU Vancouver senior and humanities major, said she and her family were without air-conditioning this summer. A high volume of broken air-conditioning units in the area led to longer than usual repair times, causing them to not have cooling for three weeks.
“My house has central air-conditioning. So we’re pretty used to it being cool and then randomly at the end of June it just went out. The first two weeks were pretty okay, because it was in the 70s and 80s, and we were able to keep the windows open. But then there were a few days where it started getting up to high 80s to 90s, and even up to 100 and it was super, super uncomfortable. And that’s when I realized we’re very lucky to have air-conditioning year round, and only when it went out did we realize how uncomfortable it can be,” Burbach said.
Burbach said she was grateful to work for the Student Activities Board as the Marketing Coordinator Vice Chair, as it allowed her to escape the heat by coming to campus. Burbach recommends that anyone experiencing similar conditions should spend their days in the Firstenburg Student Commons, as she did.
While campus buildings like the library and recreation center closed for a few weeks during the summer, many other buildings remained open and air-conditioned. Associate Vice Chancellor of Facilities Services, Bill Hooper, aims to make the buildings on campus a comfortable space for students and faculty at all times.
“We have the advantage of having a young campus. There’s nothing here that’s more than 25 years old. All the buildings are rather con- temporary and they almost all have air-conditioning. We have a central chiller plant that provides chilled water to all of the buildings and provides cooling, for the buildings. As long as people are indoors, generally speaking, the risks are minor,” Hooper said.
While the summer heat is still impacting WSU Vancouver students, staff and faculty, Hooper encourages anyone who feels temperatures are too warm or cold to call the facilities services dispatch at (360) 546-9000, as they are more than happy to make adjustments.
While severe weather events develop into a routine, it is becoming increasingly important to prioritize individual health, and the health of the greater population. Watch out for signs of heat-related illness and seek refuge at a local cooling shelter if needed — WSU Vancouver will also continue to be a place for its community to seek refuge from the heat.
Bethanie is a senior studying environmental and ecosystem science at WSU Vancouver.