Category: Health – Happiness

A Wildfire Is Pushing California Toward the Brink of Blackouts

A Wildfire Is Pushing California Toward the Brink of Blackouts

Lynn Doan and Naureen S. Malik                       

(Bloomberg) — A wildfire raging uncontrollably across southern Oregon has knocked out three electrical lines so critical to the stability of grids in the western U.S. that California has warned of rotating blackouts and Nevada faced a power emergency.

The fast-moving Bootleg fire crippled a key transmission system known as the California Oregon Intertie that the Golden State has depended on for years for electricity imports.

Making matters worse: The takedown of the intertie has had a knock-on effect on another key import hub known as the Pacific DC Intertie that brings in electricity from the Pacific Northwest, California’s grid operator said in a media briefing Saturday. Power supplies to the area covered by the grid have been reduced by as much as 3,500 megawatts because of the fire.

After days of pushing state residents to limit energy use with the risk of rolling blackouts, Californians got a break Sunday as the grid operator said conditions were expected to be stable. With transmission lines knocked out by the fire still out of service, and high temperatures expected to persist as demand picks up in the new week, another statewide conservation push through a so-called flex alert has been issued for Monday.

“If demand still outstrips supply after a Flex Alert is in effect, the ISO could take the infrequent step of ordering California utilities to spread power outages of relatively short duration to effectively extend available electricity as much as possible,” it said in a statement Sunday.

The fact that a single wildfire has brought America’s most populous and affluent state to the brink of blackouts is among the most powerful demonstrations yet of how vulnerable the world’s power grids have become to the effects of climate change.

Read: Heat Scorches U.S. West as Records Fall Across the Region

Extreme heat, drought and dry conditions globally have shrunk hydropower reserves, driven up electricity demand to record levels and touched off some of the worst wildfire seasons in modern history.

Climate change is “forcing us to do things we never imagined” at this time of the year, said Elliot Mainzer, who took over as chief executive officer of grid manager California Independent System Operator nine months ago. The agency is “anticipating what could be a very long and hot summer,” he said.

California has emerged as the epicenter of climate disasters in the U.S. Wildfires burned an unprecedented 4.3 million acres across the state last year, killing 33 people and scorching nearly 10,500 structures.

Read More: Drought Indicators Across Western U.S. Warn of the ‘Big One’

Last August California suffered its first rolling blackouts since the U.S. West energy crisis two decades ago because of extremely hot weather. And in a foreshadowing of what was to come: Days before this year’s summer officially began, high temperatures forced the California ISO to make an unusually early call for conservation, allowing the region to duck another round of rotating outages.

“Bottom line is we took everything we learned from last summer, and we still came into this summer thinking our issues were going to primarily be associated with August and September,” Mainzer said, but “we had the first major heat wave four days before the official beginning of summer.”

On Friday evening, the grid operator took the rare step of ordering a Stage 2 emergency — one step away from rotating blackouts — to cope with the loss of import capacity. Energy conservation helped the state avert a crisis. But as temperatures rose yet again and supplies fell off the grid Saturday, Mainzer said, “We’re going to need more. Honestly, I think we are going to need more response than we saw last night.”

The grid operator issued an all-clear late Saturday after issuing a flex alert. Earlier in the day, Governor Gavin Newsom also signed an order to free up more energy capacity to help alleviate the supply crunch.

California wasn’t the only state facing power woes. Nevada’s power system was among those in the region that also faced emergency levels on Friday evening, said Mark Rothleder, California’s ISO’s chief operating officer. On top of managing California’s grid, the agency serves as a reliability coordinator and is responsible for monitoring conditions across the western region.

Nevada utility NV Energy Inc. said it wasn’t forced to resort to blackouts, but the company was calling for customers to conserve over the weekend.

Exactly when the Bootleg fire would subside enough to re-energize the California Oregon Intertie remains to be seen.

The Bootleg fire had burned through 143,607 acres of southern Oregon and still zero percent of it was contained as of Sunday, forcing evacuations in Klamath County and shutting sections of a national forest, according to an update from the U.S. Fire Service.

Temperatures across California were forecast to remain high into Monday. After hitting 102 degrees Fahrenheit (39 degrees Celsius) Sunday, Sacramento is expected to slip to a high of 94 degrees on Monday.

(Updates with grid operator’s comment in fifth paragraph.)

California Orders Grid Emergency, Power Shortfalls Loom

California Orders Grid Emergency, Power Shortfalls Loom

David R. Baker, Will Wade and Mark Chediak               

 

(Bloomberg) — California ordered a stage-2 power-grid emergency — one step away from rolling blackouts — as a searing heat wave drives temperatures into triple-digits and sends demand for electricity soaring.

The state’s grid operator called for the measure as wildfires — including the Bootleg Fire in south-central Oregon — threaten transmission lines bringing power into California. It comes as a historic drought grips the Western U.S. and temperatures reach record levels in parts of the region.

The threat of blackouts underscore the power grid’s increasing vulnerability as climate change disrupts weather patterns and signal that shortfalls may continue this summer. Last August, California suffered its first rolling outages in almost two decades after hot weather sent electricity demand soaring beyond supplies. Parts of Washington and Idaho recently lost power as all-time high temperatures battered the electricity system.

Excessive heat warnings cover most of California and parts of Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah and Arizona. The California Independent System Operator, the state’s power grid manager, on Friday issued a statewide alert asking consumers to voluntarily cut back on power use. The state on Thursday asked businesses, farms and residents to voluntarily cut water use by 15% as drought emergency declarations cover 50 of 58 counties.

Power imports to the state, meanwhile, have been squeezed. The Oregon-based Bonneville Power Administration said it had to reduce capacity on a key transmission line, the Northwest AC Intertie, by 90% because of the Bootleg fire, a spokesman said.

Temperatures hit 107 degrees Fahrenheit (42 Celsius) Friday in Sacramento and 112 Saturday, according to the National Weather Service.

California has pushed hard to switch to solar and wind power while closing older gas-burning plants, but that’s left it vulnerable in evenings when solar production fades. California Independent System Operator Chief Executive Officer Elliot Mainzer said Friday that consumer conservation to avoid outages may be needed for years.

“We recognize these are transitional days and months and years for the California grid,” he said on a conference call with reporters.

Heat waves across the U.S. this year have put utilities on notice that their grids may not be adequate. California had to urge people to conserve power last month to avoid a repeat of last year’s outages, and New York City averted widespread blackouts last week after issuing its own rare emergency call for conservation. Texas also avoided a similar fate in June as unexpected plant outages cut capacity as temperatures spiked.

Read More: A Hotter World Means Keeping the Lights On Is Harder Than Ever

California officials are bracing for a difficult summer. The usual winter rains that water supplies depend on were largely absent. The drought stretching from West Texas to the California coast and north to the Canadian border is already testing power grids as hydro generation dries up just as homes blast air conditioners.

The grid manager has delayed planned retirements of several old, gas-fired power plants along the coast and tweaked electricity market rules to encourage more imports during peak-demand periods. In addition, power companies are installing large-scale batteries to store solar power during the day and supply the grid at night.

The state estimates that doing so will boost capacity by about 2,000 megawatts — roughly the output of two nuclear reactors — by August, and some are already running. Officials forecast demand Friday will peak at about 43,000 megawatts. Demand load typically peaks hours after solar output reaches its maximum.

Also See: California Summer of Heat, Power and Fire Woes Arrives Early

However, while the state can often avoid power shortages by importing power from neighbors, capacity across the west has been unusually stretched amid waves of extreme heat.

The re-opening of offices and other facilities has also added to elevated power use. Electricity generation nationwide increased by 5.9% in April from a year earlier as a result of the country returning to normal levels of electricity demand following pandemic-related shutdowns, according to a June 24 report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration that gives the most recent data available.

(Adds tweet, details of fire in fifth paragraph.)

Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study

Handful of cities driving urban greenhouse gas emissions – study

Emma Rumney and Isla Binnie                     

 

Woman wearing a mask walks past buildings on a polluted day in Hebei.

 

LONDON/MADRID (Reuters) – Just 25 big cities – almost all of them in China – accounted for more than half of the climate-warming gases pumped out by a sample of 167 urban hubs around the world, an analysis of emissions trends showed on Monday.

In per capita terms, however, emissions from cities in the richest parts of the world are still generally higher than those from urban centres in developing countries, researchers found in the study https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsc.2021.696381/full published in the open access journal Frontiers in Sustainable Cities.

The study compared greenhouse gas emissions reported by 167 cities in 53 countries, and found that 23 Chinese cities – among them Shanghai, Beijing and Handan – along with Moscow and Tokyo accounted for 52% of the total.

It included more cities from China, India, the United states and the European Union because of their larger contribution to global emissions and significance to the climate debate.

The findings highlighted the significant role cities play in reducing emissions, said study co-author Shaoqing Chen, an environmental scientist at Sun Yat-sen University in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

“It is simple, logical,” he said. “If you don’t act, eventually you will suffer from (climate change),” he said.

Average global temperatures have already risen by more than 1 degree Celsius compared to the pre-industrial baseline and are still on track to exceed the 1.5-2 degree limit set by the Paris Agreement.

Chen and other scientists cautioned, however, that some of the data available for use in their study was patchy, with some cities reporting numbers from as far back as 2005.

A lack of consistency in how cities report emissions also makes comparisons tricky, they added.

‘LAST BIG PUSH’

Research published in 2018 in the Environmental Research Letters journal analyzed a much larger sample of 13,000 cities, big and small, finding 100 cities containing 11% of the world’s population drove 18% of its carbon footprint.

Still, the new analysis “contributes to the growing literature and our understanding of urban emissions”, said Yale University Geography and Urban Science professor Karen Seto, who co-authored the 2018 paper.

“It’s really difficult to compare apples to apples on city greenhouse gas emissions but you have to try, and the paper makes a pretty good effort,” added Dan Hoornweg, a professor at Ontario Tech University and former adviser to the World Bank on sustainable cities and climate change.

Chen said the new analysis was the first to look at megacity emissions reduction targets and progress in cutting back.

Sixty-eight of the cities – mostly in developed nations – had set absolute emissions reduction targets.

But only 30 of the 42 cities where progress was tracked in the study had shown a reduction. Most of them were in the United States and Europe.

The analysis confirms scientists’ expectations that whereas in China, cities with high per capita emissions are generally major manufacturing hubs, those in developed nations with the highest per capita rates tend to have strong levels of consumption.

While more developed economies in Europe and elsewhere can now grow without increasing emissions, the world is moving at different speeds, Hoornweg said.

“They generated a tonne of emissions on the way to get there and China is in that stage now. We know India is getting there at some point and the last big push in all of this will be Africa,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Kanupriya Kapoor in Singapore; Editing by Katy Daigle and Helen Popper)

Along St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the park is quiet but the smell is strong

Along St. Petersburg’s waterfront, the park is quiet but the smell is strong

Gabe Stern, Tampa Bay Times                         

 

ST. PETERSBURG — The 9 a.m. bayside air reeked of dead fish.

Megan McDonald smelled it as she approached the park with her friend’s two dogs, and walked up to the concrete seawall and looked down at the water. There were thousands of tarpon and snook floating sideways.

“I didn’t expect it to be like this,” said McDonald, 27.

The six volleyball courts, usually full, had only two in use.

“Where is everybody?” a passerby asked between points.

“Red Tide,” replied a player.

Normally packed on a Saturday morning in July, the stench was strong and the scene was quiet at Vinoy Park as thousands of dead fish lined the seawall, spread out into the bay and turned St. Petersburg’s bayside into one of the state’s epicenters for Red Tide.

The scattered blooms of the organism that causes Red Tide, Karenia brevis, is concentrated near St. Petersburg’s beaches and parks. Of the 15 tons of dead fish the city has collected in the past 10 days, city officials believe nine were blown in by Tropical Storm Elsa, St. Petersburg Emergency Manager Amber Boulding said at a Friday news conference.

Crews stood on the edge of the seawall, scooping fish in their nets, adding to the nine tons of fish they collected in the previous 24 hours. The volleyball nets soon emptied. A biker sped along the sidewalk, one hand on the handlebar and the other on her nose.

One couple walked over to see the damage. Morgan Janssen had told Freddy Hensley about the strong stench and closed businesses that Red Tide blooms from 2017 to 2019 had caused along the Gulf Coast. Hensley visited to see a widespread outbreak for the first time.

“I wanted to show him this morning because I was like, ‘No, you have to believe me. There’s fish everywhere,’” Janssen said as Hensley scooped at the fish with a tree branch.

Others continued their normal routines. Along his favorite breezy spot at the park, Al Nixon sat on his bench, resting his arm on its back and greeting passersby like always.

He visits Vinoy Park every day, a friendly face to some and a confidant to others, but lately, he’s seen less foot traffic than normal. He noticed people “just trying to get through the walk” because of the smell. For some people who stopped to chat, the conversation often led to the stench of the water.

“It doesn’t change my mood. I’m just a play-it-by-ear, why-be-sad type of person,” he said. “It’s somewhat disappointing because you don’t see the people that you normally see and have normal chats with.”

Pinellas County helped city efforts in cleaning up waterways and beaches in St. Petersburg, Mayor Rick Kriseman said in a Saturday morning Facebook post. The city called on a debris removal contractor that usually helps with storms to clean the debris. It also sought assistance from the state.

Dead fish are also popping up in Treasure Island, scattered mostly one-by-one instead of in groups, several people who lead beach cleanups said. The Bay Side Yacht Club, a cleanup group from a cul-de-sac on Bay Plaza, met for free eggs and bacon at Caddy’s before starting their monthly beach cleanup.

City crews picked up the dead fish, but what bothered Richard Harris the most was what had caused one of the more pervasive problems from storms: the cigarette butts that Elsa had pushed to the high tide line.

“Last month, during the month of June, when I did the cleanup, I picked up 271 (cigarette butts),” he said just after 10 a.m. “Today, I’m up to 535.” (He ended the morning with 821).

As noon approached in Vinoy Park, Daniel Larouche sat in his hammock, next to a candle he lit to keep the flies away. He sleeps in the hammock most nights by a lake, then walks 30 minutes each morning to the edge of the park, where there’s a bathroom he can use and cold water fountains. He grew up in St. Petersburg, working various jobs, but ended up homeless. Vinoy Park is his go-to spot.

“A lot of people you see walking, they’re in air conditioning most of their lives. So they come out here for 20 minutes or 30 minutes to walk,” he said. “And they don’t really feel that smell. You just get used to it.”

He set up at the edge of the park, far enough where if the air is still, coffee and cigarettes can help dull the smell of the water. It was “kind of, sort of” less crowded than normal away from the main sidewalk, he said.

Fitness classes came and went. It would clear out more as the afternoon heat approaches. Crews would continue to net the fish. Eventually, the smell would return to normal.

But not on Saturday.

“There’s only so much (the city) can do,” Larouche said.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

To report fish kills in St. Petersburg, call the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or use St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

The agency asks business owners to email reports of Red Tide issues to pr@visitspc.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong the concentrations.

How to stay safe near the water
  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

St. Petersburg cleans up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours due to Red Tide, Elsa

Matt Cohen, Tampa Bay Times                         
ST. PETERSBURG — The city’s shoreline was besieged by dead fish and Red Tide blooms.

 

The sidewalk along the shore at North Shore Park reeked of death Friday. Just off into the water, crews in yellow jumpsuits and tall rubber boots scooped dead fish off the top of the water with pool skimmers, put them into trash bags and loaded them into a dump truck. Hundreds of dead fish were still out there, floating just a few feet from shore.

Crews picked up 9 tons of dead fish in 24 hours — and they weren’t even done.

The fish were killed by toxic Red Tide blooms and then pushed ashore by Tropical Storm Elsa, said St. Petersburg Emergency Manager Amber Boulding at a Friday news conference. The city has collected 15 tons of dead fish in the past 10 days, she believes the 9 tons that recently washed ashore was blown in by the storm’s winds.

“You look at Elsa and that push of water from the wind seems to have definitely pushed in more of the fish kill,” Boulding said.

The conclusion to Justin Bloom, a board member for the environmental groups Tampa Bay and Suncoast Waterkeeper, is inescapable:

“Tampa Bay is really sick right now, really extraordinarily bad. Conditions that we haven’t seen in decades.”

Several high concentrations of Karenia brevis, the microorganism that causes Red Tide blooms, also dot St. Petersburg’s shore. They were detected in water samples taken off Vinoy Park, Bayboro Harbor, Big Bayou and Coquina Key, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Red Tide map.

The result, Boulding said, is that St. Petersburg is seeing a greater number of fish kills than the massive 2017-19 Red Tide outbreak that crushed the county’s tourism industry and led to more than 1,800 tons of dead marine life to wash up onto the Pinellas beaches. But that outbreak afflicted the Gulf of Mexico side of the Pinellas coast, while the current outbreak is on the Tampa Bay side, which affects St. Petersburg the most.

“It’s very serious,” Boulding said.

Bloom believes the April Piney Point disaster helped fuel strong, harmful Red Tide blooms. The owner of the Manatee County fertilizer plant released 215 million gallons of polluted wastewater into Tampa Bay. Scientists are studying whether the release fueled the algal blooms.

The most impacted areas, according to St. Petersburg officials, were along the east and southeast coast from Tierra Verde to Gandy Boulevard.

Boulding said aerial footage of Tampa Bay has shown there is a lot more dead fish in the water waiting that will need to be cleaned after it comes ashore. While she assured residents and tourists that crews are working as fast as they can, she said this isn’t a problem that will be resolved quickly.

The city’s efforts are “at the mercy” of the winds and tides pushing Red Tide blooms and dead fish piles around the bay, she said.

Boulding said residents and visitors can see the dead fish on their morning runs and smell them the moment they step outside. Officials don’t know when the current situation will get better. Pinellas County officials say that, including St. Petersburg, the county has collected 427 tons of dead marine life and debris.

“What makes our city so wonderful is all of our waterfront,” Boulding said. “And that also is what makes it so tough when it comes to tackling Red Tide.”

Crews of about 120 people from across city departments are on clean-up duty. The effort started last week but paused as workers helped distribute sandbags in advance of Elsa. When the storm passed by, she said, they went back out cleaning fish.

The focus on the clean-up has delayed other city services like roadway mowing, tree trimming and pot hole repairs.

Boulding asks anyone who sees dead fish on land or in the water to report it by calling the Mayor’s Action Center at 727-893-7111 or through St. Petersburg’s seeclickfix website.

Red Tide resources

There are several online resources that can help residents stay informed and share information about Red Tide:

Florida Poison Control Centers have a toll-free 24/7 hotline to report illnesses, including from exposure to Red Tide: 1-800-222-1222

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the county’s tourism wing, runs an online beach dashboard at www.beachesupdate.com.

The agency asks business owners to email reports of Red Tide issues to pr@visitspc.com.

Pinellas County shares information with the Red Tide Respiratory Forecast tool that allows beachgoers to check for warnings.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has a website that tracks where Red Tide is detected and how strong the concentrations.

How to stay safe near the water
  • Beachgoers should avoid swimming around dead fish.
  • Those with chronic respiratory problems should be particularly careful and “consider staying away” from places with a Red Tide bloom.
  • People should not harvest or eat mollusks or distressed and dead fish from the area. Fillets of healthy fish should be rinsed with clean water, and the guts thrown out.
  • Pet owners should keep their animals away from the water and from dead fish.
  • Residents living near the beach should close their windows and run air conditioners with proper filters.
  • Visitors to the beach can wear paper masks, especially if the wind is blowing in.

Source: Florida Department of Health in Pinellas County

The Phrase That Completely Transformed How I Think About Exercise

The Phrase That Completely Transformed How I Think About Exercise

Lindsay Holmes                    
Working out isn't supposed to be torture, but many of us are taught from a young age that it should feel that way. (Photo: Kamon Saejueng / EyeEm via Getty Images)
Working out isn’t supposed to be torture, but many of us are taught from a young age that it should feel that way. (Photo: Kamon Saejueng / EyeEm via Getty Images)

 

For most of my life, I’ve had a tumultuous relationship with exercise.

This was mostly due to the fact that I felt like it was a requirement and I was never any “good” at it. I loathed team sports as a kid, and I’d put more energy into pretending I was sick so I could sit on the bench rather than participating with my peers. I had very little stamina and terrible coordination. Not to mention the fact that I felt like my abilities were being measured against my classmates’.

Those feelings followed me into adulthood. I found myself avoiding the gym or fitness classes because I didn’t want people to see how “bad” I was at working out. And, like many people, I also inherently looked at exercise as a way to counter the food I consumed during the day or what I saw in the mirror.

It took me a very long time to change my outlook on working out ― to not see it as disciplinary or a way to embarrass myself but as something that makes me feel good. I read about a concept a few years ago that helped me get there: Exercise is a celebration of what your body can do.

Stop and read that again.

We’re trained to think we always have to be making gains or shrinking ourselves ― that exercise is for changing our body, not honoring how it is right now.

I spent years thinking I was never “good enough” when it came to exercise. I wasn’t good enough to play sports, wasn’t good enough to use gym equipment, wasn’t good enough with my diet to not need to work out so hard in the first place. Instead, what if I had looked at exercise as a way to celebrate what my own body could do? Even if that varies day-to-day.

Once I adopted that mindset, everything started to change. It helps on those days when I’m looking at fitness as a dreadful obligation rather than a choice.

We’re trained to think we always have to be making gains or shrinking ourselves ― that exercise is for changing our body, not a way to honor how it is right now.

Of course, an affirmation can only take you so far. You also need to put it into practice. Here’s some other advice on how to see exercise as a celebration of your body:

Spend time discovering what movement brings you joy.

The American Heart Association recommends that you get 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week, which is defined as anything that gets your heart rate 50% to 60% higher than your resting heart rate. Any movement that gets you there works. Avoid the mental trap of thinking that you have to destroy yourself in order for your workout to count; you do not have to engage in any type of exercise that you hate.

“Think of these two categories: Does it make your body feel good, and do you enjoy it?” said Jessica Mazzucco, a certified fitness trainer in New York City and founder of The Glute Recruit. “There are so many formats out there to choose from, including playing tennis, swimming, dancing, biking, weight training, boxing, yoga, running, pilates, etc. If you find yourself excited and wanting to go back and perform that workout again, then you know you have found what works for you.”

Then don’t hesitate to change up your workout routine (even if you used to love it).

I briefly got into running during quarantine. I loved that it was a safe activity that got me outside and that I was able to measure my progress. Now, I’d rather wait in a long line at the bank than even think about jogging.

I’ve gone through similar phases with strength training and cardio. There was a time where nothing could coerce me into cardio; instead, I was going to different weight-focused fitness classes multiple times a week. Today, I prefer cycling and I look forward to spending 30 or 45 minutes on a spin bike.

It’s perfectly fine to switch up your routine. In fact, it’s highly encouraged.

“Some people get bored of the same workout routine day in and day out,” Mazzucco said. “It’s a good idea to add excitement into your routine by participating in different workouts a few days a week.”

Make your workouts a social activity.

Working out with others might feel intimidating, but it actually helps when these get-togethers are a regular part of your social life. I started viewing time working out with friends as a way to catch up with people I love rather than an hour-long torture session. Make a walking date with your partner or spend some adventure time with your best friend trying out an aerial yoga class. It’s a bonding experience that takes you out of the negative mentality you might have toward exercise.

Don’t turn to exercise when you’re feeling bad about what you ate.

I had a habit of telling myself I had to sign up for a workout class or go for a run after eating a big meal. Turning to exercise when I felt guilty about what I ate or how I looked made fitness a penalty rather than a priority. (Not to mention the fact that this mentality also damages your relationship with food.)

In order to have a healthy relationship with fitness, it needs to be unlinked from food and appearance, Mazzucco said. “It’s easier to bring yourself to move each day, and fitness seems like less of a chore and more of an act of self-care,” she added.

Focus on the emotional effects of working out.

A runner’s high doesn’t happen because running itself has some magical powers ― it’s the exercise that brings the mood boost. You can get the same outcome from walking, cycling, dancing in your kitchen, swimming, using the monkey bars or whatever else you choose to do. I constantly try to remind myself that I’m working out for my mental health, and the physical perks are just a bonus.

“I love the mantra ‘love yourself first, love yourself most.’ Exercise is one of the best ways you can love yourself,” said Jennifer Conroyd, a certified fitness trainer, ironman and founder of Fluid Running. “You’re reducing your risk of disease. You’re strengthening your body and your heart. You’re de-stressing yourself and making yourself feel better. Think of exercise as a gift that you’ve been given.”

Remember that your relationship to exercise ― and how often you do it ― will change. A lot.

I’m not some jacked fitness expert who never misses a workout. There are some days that I mentally or physically can’t bring myself to sweat — just today, I set my alarm for a workout and slept right through it. This is to be expected.

“It’s important to remember that our bodies evolve and age, and we have to stop putting harsh expectations on our bodies if they don’t look or perform the way we want them to,” Mazzucco said, adding that you should “accept that you won’t always want to work out, and that’s OK. Even the most motivated exercisers have days where they do not want to go to the gym.”

It’s OK to move your body how you want to move it and when you want to move it. Anything else shouldn’t be called exercise ― it’s punishment.

Related…

This Texas family overcame hardship to buy a new home, but builder rips up the contract

This Texas family overcame hardship to buy a new home, but builder rips up the contract

Gordon Dickson                           

After losing their home because of financial problems years ago, Gabriela Lopez and her husband worked hard to rebuild their credit, save money and buy a dream home.

The couple, who have five children and live in a two-bedroom home in the Runaway Bay area about 60 miles northwest of Fort Worth, finally prequalified for a loan. They signed a construction contract in January for a 1,947-square-foot, four-bedroom home to be built in the Wise County community of Boyd, closer to the Dallas-Fort Worth urbanized area.

Construction was slow, but everything seemed to be going OK until June 28, when the builder, Doug Parr Custom Homes, abruptly canceled the contract.

“It feels like they ripped the rug out from under our feet,” said Lopez, a long-time Wise County resident who works as a receptionist and assistant at a Southlake medical office. Her husband, Jose Juan Lopez, works at a rock-crushing operation in Wise County.

Officials from Doug Parr Custom Homes did not respond to messages left with a call taker at the company’s office in Boyd, as well as emails to the company and to Clinten Bailey, Doug Parr director of operations.

Rising construction costs drive trend

This setback for the Lopez family is the latest example of a trend in which North Texans sign contracts with new home builders, only to have the contracts ripped up while the house is under construction. In Lopez’s case and many other instances, the builders cite the rising cost of construction materials such as lumber.

“I’ve been doing this 20 years. I’ve never seen this,” Rick Shelhorse, branch manager of Synergy One Lending in Plano, said in an interview. He said his office has three clients, including the Lopez family, who have been told by a builder they will have to pay thousands of dollars more if they want to keep their home.

In Lopez’s case, she was notified June 25 that the price of her $320,000 home would be raised to about $384,400, and she could either pay the additional money or walk away from her contract. Three days later, before she had notified the builder of her decision, Lopez received a letter notifying her that it was no longer her decision, and the contract had been canceled by the builder.

“I think they’re just taking advantage of the market, and they can do that to people because they know somebody is going to pay it,” Shelhorse said.

In the June 28 letter, Bailey, the director of operations for Doug Parr, wrote to Lopez that the contract was being canceled because “it is clear that certain disputes and/or material misunderstandings between the parties have arisen concerning the Contract, including but not limited to, the escalation of material costs.”

But Lopez and her real estate agent, Ryan Barnes, said there were no such disputes or misunderstandings. Lopez said that when she spoke by phone with company owner Doug Parr on June 25, she expressed concern about whether she would still qualify for a loan that was nearly $65,000 higher than her original loan, but she never said yes or no to the higher price.

Barnes, who works with the Cassie Samons Team and JP & Associates in Justin, said he repeatedly asked the builder for evidence of the price increases, including the dates in which the builder purchased the materials, but was refused. He said he visited the builder’s office in person June 30, but was told to leave.

Lopez, who also holds a second job as a caregiver for an elderly client, said she isn’t sure what to do next. The family can stay at their home in the Runaway Bay area, but it is cramped for such a large family.

She said her children, who had been excited to move into their new, spacious bedrooms, are hurt and confused by the loss of the home.

Experts: Have lawyer review contracts

Prospective home buyers should read their contracts with builders carefully to make sure they are aware of any language that may make it possible for the builder to raise the sales price, several real estate finance and legal experts said. In new home construction, contracts are often drawn up with language that favors the builder — for example, making it difficult for the buyer to cancel the deal, but relatively easy for the seller.

It’s worth spending a few hundred dollars to have a lawyer look over the contract before signing, the experts said.

And, Lopez was even more frustrated to find out that another Doug Parr Custom Homes buyer on the same street is not being asked to pay higher prices because of construction costs. She knows this because her lender, Synergy Lending, also represents the other buyer.

“I assumed they were raising all the prices at the same time,” she said. “Why us?”

“I still don’t understand how you can sign a contract and not mean it,” she said.

View Point: Drugs – Where we are at in Sault Ste. Marie

Sault Online

View Point: Drugs – Where we are at in Sault Ste. Marie

By Content Team                            July 7, 2021
overdose

by Peter Chow

In 2020, Ontario saw 2,426 opioid-related deaths, a 60.0% increase from 1,517 deaths in 2019.

By age, the largest increases were among those aged 25 to 44 (61.4% increase from 83 to 134 deaths monthly) and those aged 45 to 64 years (119.5% increase from 41 to 90 deaths monthly).

The Algoma region saw 53 opioid deaths in 2020, up from 17 in 2019. So far, in 2021, we are on track for over 60 opioid overdose deaths.

Sudbury’s per capita deaths by opioid is the highest in Ontario, with over 50 per 100,000, with North Bay, Thunder Bay, Timmins and Sault Ste. Marie close to, or over 40 deaths per 100,000.

There was a rise in the number of overdose deaths with stimulants and benzodiazepines involved in 2020.

The percentage of opioid-related deaths associated with stimulants, such as Crystal Meth or Cocaine, as a contributing factor, increased from 52.0% in 2019 to 60.5% in 2020

Approximately one-third of deaths also involved a benzodiazepine, such as Valium or Xanax.

Of the people who died of overdose in 2020, that were employed at the time they died, 30% were construction workers, more prevalent in this industry than any other. The nature of the industry can lead its workers down the path of addiction.

With workplace injuries not uncommon, prescription painkillers can often lead to drug dependence. The trouble really starts when the doctor cuts off the prescriptions. The addicted worker can’t get the pain killers anymore and that’s when they go to the street.

For those unfortunate people addicted to opiates, there are medicines that work to reduce the effects of withdrawal and  reduce cravings  –  Suboxone, Methadone, and Naltrexone. These medications reduce mortality rates as they significantly reduce the chance of relapse and overdose. All three medicines substantially reduce the risk of dying from an overdose.

Until recently, Methadone was the primary drug prescribed for the treatment of opioid use disorder. However, the chance of an overdose with Methadone is 6 times higher than with Suboxone.

BC and Ontario have now made Suboxone (a combination of Buprenorphine and Naloxone), the primary recommended treatment for persons who have been abusing opioids for years, and it is on the provincial formularies, meaning those who qualify will receive the drug free of charge.

Other provinces will likely follow BC and Ontario.

Buprenorphine is a partial opiate agonist. It binds to the opioid receptors in the brain, relieving symptoms of withdrawal and cravings without producing a high.

The only purpose of the Naloxone in Suboxone is to prevent abuse of the drug by injection.

Suboxone is the safest of the opioid treatment medications. Suboxone is a pill (it goes under your tongue). It is now available as an injectable long-acting implant, but only in the US.

Methadone is used in the case of a severe addiction to opioids where Suboxone does not sufficiently relieve the symptoms of withdrawal. Methadone is a full opioid agonist, like Heroin. It binds to the opioid receptors in the brain, relieving symptoms of withdrawal and cravings.

In the most severe cases where persons on Methadone continue to relapse, pharmacy-grade Hydromorphone (Dilaudid) can be prescribed to  prevent withdrawal and cravings.

In persons motivated to choose abstinence, Naltrexone can be used to manage cravings. Naltrexone blocks the brain cells’ opioid receptors and thus the euphoria from abusing drugs.

Revia and Apo-Naltrexone are the pill form of Naltrexone and must be taken daily. Vivitrol is the injectable form of Naltrexone which lasts one month. Vivitrol is currently not available in Canada and costs about $1,000 per shot in the US. However, physicians may apply to get Vivitrol under Health Canada’s Special Access Program.

Due to a loss of tolerance to opiates from using Naltrexone, there is a high risk of overdose if Naltrexone is discontinued and there is a return to opioid use. Yet surprisingly, these medications are severely underused.

Fewer than 10% of those addicted to opioids are on Suboxone, Methadone or Naltrexone. Bureaucratic restrictions keep doctors from widely prescribing Suboxone.

The Ontario Drug Benefit codes for Suboxone state that prescribers should complete an accredited course on opioid addiction and Buprenorphine treatment before prescribing.

The requirement that Methadone be doled out in person remains, even though evidence shows that allowing it to be taken home reduces subsequent hospitalizations.

Skittishness among non-addiction-specialist doctors limits the use of these treatments, as does a shortage of addiction specialists, especially in rural areas. We don’t have an addiction specialist in the Soo.

Supervised Injection Sites are clean indoor environments where people can use pre-obtained drugs with trained health professionals present to ensure safe drug consumption methods, respond in the event of an overdose, provide counseling and referrals to vital social services and treatment options and test drugs for any trace of Fentanyl.

Extensive research has shown Supervised Injection Sites reduce overdose deaths, increase addiction treatment uptake, and reduce social nuisance.

Although Supervised Injection Sites are not the sole answer to the opioid crisis, they are being set up by Canadian cities as a way to fill an immense gap in the current system of care and engage a highly vulnerable and difficult to reach population – ultimately reducing the public health burden and saving lives.

But polls show that a Supervised Injection Site will likely face the familiar barrier of unfavorable public opinion in Sault Ste Marie, behind the times as usual. Supervised Injection Sites remain highly controversial and stigmatized.

The public and political concerns and fears are clear: that Supervised Injection Sites promote drug use, that they will bring drug users to the neighborhoods they are located in, that it is morally and legally wrong to encourage and allow drug use, and so on.

NIMBY.

This battle illuminates the societal impact of the war on drugs and a country that criminalizes addiction. Calls for “Heroin-Assisted Treatment”, as practised in some European countries, like Switzerland, are going nowhere.

Canada is still not Switzerland.

Even if Canada managed to build 100 Supervised Injection Sites, that might  cover only 1% of actual usage. It’s just not scalable.

Suboxone is scalable.  Needle exchanges are scalable.  Naloxone is scalable.  Anonymous drug testing is scalable.  That’s what public health should concentrate on.

Primary Care Providers (PCP), doctors and nurse practitioners, should be fully educated and trained on the treatment of Opioid Use Disorder with Suboxone, Methadone or Naltrexone.

Two measures alone, Anonymous Drug Testing (to screen for Fentanyl-tainted drugs) and increased access to Suboxone, would do more than anything else to immediately reduce harm and deaths from opioids.

The challenge now is that the nature of addiction has transformed into something deadlier in recent years—and not just because of potent synthetic opioids like Fentanyl and Carfentanil. (Carfentanil’s potency is 10,000 times that of Morphine and 100 times that of Fentanyl.)

It is because of the rising abuse of other types of drugs as well  –  stimulants (Meth and Cocaine) and “Benzos.”

In 2011, 19% of opioid drug users said that they also used Crystal Meth (Methamphetamine);  by 2019 that number had grown to 60%.

Opioids such as Heroin, Oxycodone and Fentanyl depress the nervous system and have a sedative effect.

Methamphetamines, on the other hand, are stimulants and have the opposite effect, making people euphoric and feeling like they have endless energy.

Like Cocaine, Crystal Meth makes a user high by releasing the neurotransmitter Dopamine into the brain. But with Crystal Meth, the effects are more pronounced, last longer and keep users awake for extended periods of time. In fact, people who are homeless, living in shelters or crowded, unsafe spaces, seek out Crystal Meth in particular.

To protect themselves and their belongings, they need to stay awake;  and in order to stay awake, they use Crystal Meth daily.

The availability and use of Crystal Meth is still increasing rapidly because Meth is so cheap, and people get such a quick and powerful rush of euphoria that can last for 12 hours or more.  A “hit” with what is almost 100% pure Meth can cost as little as $5..

According to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), the going street rate for Meth in Northern Ontario, as of 2020, was $10 to $30 a “point” (one-tenth of a gram). Dealers operate on the principle of supply and demand, so communities plagued by addiction — like Sault Ste Marie — are an attractive market in which to sell a cheap drug.

It is not confined to any particular socio-economic group, but found everywhere in every strata of society. Nor is it exclusively an urban issue. No community is immune to it, especially rural and First Nations communities.

One community struggling with the Crystal Meth epidemic is the Montreal Lake First Nation, where an estimated 60% of residents are addicted to the drug. Winnipeg, Calgary and Regina are in the grip of a Crystal Meth crisis that is only getting worse.

Meth is a key factor driving crime rates, both violent and property related.

In 2016, Crystal Meth hit with full force and crime rates — primarily thefts of items people were selling to feed their addiction — increased dramatically.

The Calgary police chief says;  “Fentanyl is a community health crisis, Crystal Meth is a crime and safety issue.”

Crystal Meth use makes treatment more complicated. There are no well-developed pharmaceutical therapeutics for addiction to Crystal Meth.

Doctors have started using Olanzapine, an antipsychotic drug, to try to provide immediate relief for patients suffering distressing symptoms from Meth use. “Olanzapine sort of gels their brain a bit,” one ER doctor said. “Their brain is firing all over the place, and if we can help just bring it together a little bit so that we can start working and talking through it, that’s helpful.” If that doesn’t work, and safety is a concern, patients sometimes have to be sedated further, or even physically restrained.

After the patient has settled down, there’s little more that healthcare workers can do.

The doctor said it’s upsetting to watch patients leave the emergency department knowing that their Meth-induced mood swings, paranoia and hallucinations can last for days — not to mention the “cravings that come afterwards.”

“All of that sets somebody up to use again very quickly.”

“The understanding of how to treat somebody who is interested in stopping Meth is very, very minimal,” she said.

Unlike opioid replacement therapy — which uses Suboxone or Methadone to relieve withdrawal symptoms — Meth has no pharmaceutical solution to reduce cravings. “It’s a whole other area of substance abuse and addiction that is so difficult.”

Deaths due to “Meth toxicity” (with no evidence of opiates) increased,  from 38 cases in 2015 to 54 in 2018, Dr. Dirk Huyer, Ontario’s chief coroner said. In those cases, a Meth-induced irregular heartbeat rhythm could be a possible cause of death.

84% of deaths involving Meth also involved an opioid in 2020.

Last year marked the first time Ontario has included stimulant-related deaths in its overdose-death data, which has typically counted only deaths caused by opioids. In total, there were at least 300 overdose deaths that involved both stimulants and opioids, every month in Ontario from May to October in 2020  –  the equivalent of 10 people dying every day.

Today, more people using Meth are at risk of dying from overdoses than ever before. Just as drug dealers have cut opioids like Heroin with Fentanyl or Carfentanil, they have also mixed them into other types of drugs, including Meth.

For one Meth user, life has become a seemingly unbreakable cycle, in which he commits crimes to feed his addiction, goes to jail, comes out sober and then relapses, starting all over again. Without a trace of resentment or self-pity, he acknowledges that jail has been the only place where he’s been drug-free for long stretches.

“As much as, like, nobody wants to go to jail, it’s really the only place where I can grow as a person,” he said.

Farmworkers face dangerous conditions as heat waves scorch Western U.S.

Farmworkers face dangerous conditions as heat waves scorch Western U.S.

David Knowles, Senior Editor                           July 8, 2021

 

With temperatures expected to top 110 degrees in California’s Central Valley, and reach 120 degrees in the southern part of the state, migrant farmworkers will once again be forced to endure dangerous conditions born of climate change.

“Farmworkers really are at the frontlines of climate change,” Leydy Rangel, communications manager for the United Farm Workers Foundation told Yahoo News. “Unfortunately, that’s an issue that will not get better. We know that heat is the No. 1 cause of weather-related deaths in the U.S.”

When a heat dome descended over the Pacific Northwest last month, Sebastian Francisco Perez, a Guatemalan immigrant, was found unresponsive on June 26 at the farm where he had been working in 104-degree heat.

A farmer pulls a wind-felled almond tree with a tractor on an almond farm in Gustine, California, U.S., on Monday, June 14, 2021. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A farmer pulls a wind-felled almond tree with a tractor on an almond farm in Gustine, California, U.S., on Monday, June 14, 2021. (David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

 

In response, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown directed the state’s workplace safety agency to implement rules designed to protect workers from extreme heat.

“All Oregonians should be able to go to work knowing that conditions will be safe and that they will return home to their families at the end of the day,” Brown said in a statement. “While Oregon OSHA has been working to adopt permanent rules related to heat, it became clear that immediate action was necessary in order to protect Oregonians, especially those whose work is critical to keeping Oregon functioning and oftentimes must continue during extreme weather.”

California’s heat standards — which mandate clean drinking water for workers, breaks and access to shade — were put in place following the 2008 death of Maria Isabel Vasquez Jimenez, a 17-year-old migrant worker from Oaxaca, Mexico. Unaware that she was pregnant, she died while while harvesting grapes at a farm near Stockton, Calif., in temperatures near 100 degrees.

“Farmworkers have been excluded from many of the rights and benefits that protect other workers partly because they are immigrants and don’t have legal status,” Rangel said.

During last month’s heat dome event in the Pacific Northwest, which killed hundreds of people across the region, the UFW conducted a text-message survey of agricultural workers in Washington state. While the results are still preliminary and have not yet been published, Rangel told Yahoo News that of the 1,875 workers who responded, 56 percent reported experiencing symptoms associated with heat illness while on the job, 26 percent said they were not being provided with cool drinking water and 96 percent said that they believed heat regulations should be improved in the state.

Ben DuVal stands in a field of triticale, one of the few crops his family was able to plant this year due to the water shortage, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Tulelake, Calif. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)
Ben DuVal stands in a field of triticale, one of the few crops his family was able to plant this year due to the water shortage, on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, in Tulelake, Calif. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)

 

Washington, California and Minnesota are the only states in the nation that have implemented heat rights for farmworkers, Rangel said, but the standards vary. As yet there are is no federal legislation to protect workers from exposure to excessive heat.

In 2019, the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act was introduced in the House of Representatives. Like California’s heat standards, the bill is named after an agricultural worker who perished while picking table grapes for 10 hours straight in temperatures over 100 degrees. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., introduced the bill in the Senate this year.

“Workers in California and across the country are too often exposed to dangerous heat conditions in the workplace. In the past year, Californians have faced extreme heat temperatures from wildfires, while trying to navigate the unique challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic — risking the health and safety of our workers,” Padilla said in a statement when the bill was introduced. “This vital legislation will hold employers accountable and ensure workplace protections are put in place to prevent further heat stress illness and deaths from happening.”

The bill’s sponsors noted that 815 workers in the U.S. had been killed due to heat stress injuries between 1992 and 2017, and more than 70,000 workers had been seriously injured.

Pedro Lucas (left), nephew of farm worker Sebastian Francisco Perez who died last weekend while working in an extreme heat wave, break up earth on Thursday, July, 1, 2021 near St. Paul, Ore. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)Pedro Lucas (left), nephew of farm worker Sebastian Francisco Perez who died last weekend while working in an extreme heat wave, break up earth on Thursday, July, 1, 2021 near St. Paul, Ore. (Nathan Howard/AP Photo)

From soaring temperatures to increased exposure to smoke from wildfires, climate change has made the conditions for migrant farmworkers, most of whom have come to the U.S. from Mexico and Central America, increasingly dangerous. As California braces for its third record-breaking heat wave of 2021, farmworkers are having to adapt to a new normal.

“Every single year, we keep hitting record after record in terms of temperatures,” Rangel said. “That’s only going to continue. So it’s important that we do something now before we see more deaths. Everyone deserves to be protected when they go to work.”

Death Valley to see another round of record-rivaling temps

Death Valley to see another round of record-rivaling temps

Rina Torchinsky                         

High heat in Death Valley pushed the mercury up to 128 degrees Fahrenheit about three weeks ago, far above what’s normal there for this time of year. And another round of above-average heat was building in the region, which could send temperatures just as high over the weekend.

Sunday’s high in Death Valley is forecast to reach 130 degrees, which would be within four degrees of the record set there in 1913 of 134. The 134-degree mark happens to be the world record for the highest temperature ever measured on Earth. AccuWeather forecasts show that the RealFeel could reach 132 degrees Sunday in Death Valley.

The high temperatures are a result of a heat dome, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex Sosnowski. The phenomenon occurs when there is an area of high pressure, not only in the lower part of the atmosphere but also at the jet stream level, Sosnowski explained.

Death Valley, along with parts of Nye County and the Mojave Desert, is set to be under an excessive heat warning from 8 a.m. Wednesday through 8 p.m. PDT Monday, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). On Wednesday, the first day of that warning, the temperature soared to 126 degrees in Death Valley.

Last month, during the heat wave the gripped the Southwest, AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell was on the ground in Death Valley at the height of the heat, and he spoke with people from around the country who happened to have been visiting during the hot spell.
FILE – In this Aug. 17, 2020, file photo, Steve Krofchik cools off with a bottle of ice water on his head in Death Valley National Park, Calif. Climate-connected disasters seem everywhere in the crazy year 2020, but scientists Wednesday, Sept. 9, say it’ll get worse. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

“This is exceptionally hot. It’s scary how hot it is,” Linda Utz of Titusville, Florida, marveled. “We planned this trip last October and made reservations,” she explained to Wadell. “While we knew it would be warm because it was summer, we never expected this type of heat.”

And as far as it goes for people who spend almost all of their time in Death Valley, “This is an extremely hot place for us to live and work, as well as it is for people to visit,” Abby Wines, Death Valley National Park spokesperson, said. “There is something to be said for climatizing, so a person who acclimatizes to a high altitude, their body can adjust somewhat to dealing with extreme heat.”

The stretch of weather extending through the end of the week could bring “dangerously hot conditions,” according to the NWS. The western Mojave Desert and Owens Valley could see temperatures as high as 110 degrees. The region could see record-rivaling or record-breaking temperatures.

Bishop, California, already saw a record-high temperature of 105 degrees Tuesday, tying a previous record set in 1945, according to a record report from the NWS.

Just last week, the Northwest battled a round of its own record-breaking temperatures. The historic heat wave stretched well into Canada as Lytton, British Columbia, broke a national record at 121 degrees, Canada’s government weather service reported. Within days of reaching that mark, the small town was devastated by wildfires, which consumed 90% of the village.

British Columbia’s chief coroner said that there were 486 reports of “sudden and unexpected” deaths in a five-day period during the heat wave, according to The Associated Press. The province usually sees about 165 deaths within that time interval.

Meanwhile, in Washington, there were at least 676 emergency department visits over a three-day period during the heat wave.

The NWS cautioned that the warm conditions in the Southwest could increase the potential for heat-related illnesses, especially for those who are outside. The heat warning encourages people to drink plenty of fluids and to stick to air-conditioned spaces.
Climate Central

A number of cooling stations will be activated in Clark County, Nevada, from July 7 to 12, according to a tweet from the city of Las Vegas, which cautioned residents about the dangers of heat exhaustion and heatstroke.

Heat is the most deadly weather impact annually in the U.S. Extreme heat has contributed to an average of 138 fatalities every year over the past 30 years.

In addition, high heat is notorious for causing a spike in visits to the hospital. According to data compiled by Climate Central, as extreme heat builds, the risk of heat-related illnesses also mounts. The Climate Central data shows a correlation between a rise in hospital visits for different parts of the country as temperatures rise, noting that “People in historically cooler regions may be less acclimatized to heat, and lack the infrastructure to cope with it.”