heat

Heat kills more people every year than any other climate-driven disaster. But experts say hot temperatures are likely causing even more deaths than official numbers show.

Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska are part of an emerging “extreme heat belt” that could deliver more scorching days within 30 years. So far, there’s no unified plan to make our dwellings safe in the dangerously high temperatures to come.

How bad is the Kansas drought? Among the most severe in recorded history. But some other years were more extreme.

A new study from the First Street Foundation says the extreme heat belt will stretch from East Texas to Wisconsin.

A new study modeling heat across the United States shows much of Kansas will be hit with extremely high heat index temperatures as the Midwest deals with the effects of climate change.

Other states have instituted policies requiring stronger protocols for practices in hot weather to help avoid injuries.

More than 2,000 cattle carcasses were put in landfill piles or pits after dying in the southwest Kansas heat. But those are not prohibited or unexpected methods of livestock disposal.

The weather event that killed thousands of cattle in southwest Kansas last month was a rare combination of extreme factors. But it highlights the ongoing risk that heat stress poses for cattle, especially as climate change pushes temperatures higher.

The heat will drive Texas energy use to new highs and test the resilience of the state’s electric grid ahead of what’s expected to be a scorching summer.