1. Applied Climatology Professor Andrew Grundstein Atmospheric Sciences Program UGA Geography Department http://geography.uga.edu/directory/profile /grundstein-andrew-j

2. Applied Climatology What do applied climatologist do?

3. Drought What’s a drought?

4. Drought A persistent and abnormal moisture deficiency having adverse impacts on vegetation, animals, or people. – National Drought Policy Commission Repot, May 200

5. How do measure severity? Precipitation Soil Moisture Vegetation Health Surface Water Supplies – Stream flow

6. Athens, GA 2007-2009 Drought

7. Athens Area Drought How bad was it? 4 October 2007: Athens-Clarke County officials discuss the possibility of water rationing by Thanksgiving and the complete depletion of the main source of Athens’ water by Christmas (Aued, 2007a). 20 October 2007: Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue declares a state of emergency in 85 counties because many cities in the state had water supplies of <70 days (McCarthy, 2007).

8. How bad was this drought? PDI 4 th worst 3 rd worst

9. How bad was this drought Precipitation 2 nd worst

10. How bad was the drought stream flow

11. Population growth

12. Population growth and Water usage

13. What can we do? Mitigative – Drought policies & water restrictions Adapative – Conservation practices

14. Hyperthermia A pro football player for the Minnesota Vikings, Korey Stringer, died of heat stroke. The temperature reached the low 90s, but the high humidity raised the heat index to as high as 110 degrees. He had a temperature of over 108 o F when he arrived at the hospital. Exertional heat stroke

15. Introduction Football players are particularly susceptible to heat-related illnesses Heat-related Deaths 1955-2009 (NCCIR)

16. Football Hyperthermia Deaths 1980-2009 58 Deaths

17. Football EHI Mortality 1980-2009 Filled circles are deaths that occurred in locations with meteorological stations ≤ 50 km (31 mi) 6 GA deaths Most of any state

18. When 64%

19. Who Position Linemen 86% of deaths

20. Who BMI overweight Obese 95% Overweight or Obese

21. Deaths by Year 2.8 1.0

22. Average Meteorological Conditions

23. Meteorological Conditions 91F66F 69F82F 86F95F 82F86F

24. How typical were the conditions? Over 80% hotter than average Almost 70% more humid than normal Hotter + More Humid

25. Heat Safety Policies Georgia High Schools Association

26. Children and Hot Cars?

30. Circumstances 51% 29% 18% Data from Jan Null http://ggweather.com/heat/

31. June 22, 2007 76 o C = 169 o F!

32. Why do cars get so hot? Vehicles and Greenhouse Effect

33. Greenhouse Warming

34. Maximum Vehicle Heating minutesΔT ( o C) 54 107 159 2012 2514 3016 3518 4020 4522 5023 5525 6026  Data from 14 clear days, in Athens, GA.  Metallic gray 2005 Honda Civic with gray cloth seats  Parked in an open lot with direct exposure to sunlight  Closed windows 47 o F

35. Vehicle-related Hyperthermia Table ≤1 Hour Exposure Deaths ≤ 15 minutes About 12% deaths ≤ 1 hr (Grundstein et al. 2011) start T ( o C)end T ( o C)minutes 264955 2850 304840 325040 345035 365030 385025 404920 425120 445115 465315 118-127 o F 79-115 o F

36. What can we do? Communicate the hazard… Provide guidance on what to do… – Never leave a child unattended in a car – Look before you leave – Lock car doors – Take action if you see a child alone in a car