‘Hell on Earth’: Phoenix’s extreme heatwave tests the limits of survival | Hacker News Reader

‘Hell on Earth’: Phoenix’s extreme heatwave tests the limits of survival

theguardian.com

24 pointswebmaven20 comments

There's a picture of a "heat response team" and their shirts are dark red. Hasn't anyone heard of wearing white to reflect the sun ?

“The color of your clothing can affect how well it protects you from UV rays. Dark or bright colors, including red, black and navy blue, absorb more UV rays than lighter colors like whites and pastels. For example, an everyday white cotton T-shirt has a UPF of only about 5. As a rule of thumb, the more intense the hue, the better protection the clothing will provide.”

Source: https://www.skincancer.org/blog/dress-to-protect-5-things-th....

This has been known for some time. Phoenix is a testiment to Man's hubris but somehow it keeps growing

"It is a monument to Man's arrogance!" [1] I visited a few months ago and, while it was nice, I didn't see the value proposition of living there considering that the one-bedroom apartments I saw advertised rented for as much as mine does in San Diego...

[1] https://youtube.com/watch?v=4PYt0SDnrBE

Starin' hard at the postcards, isn't it odd and unique / Seein' people smile wild in the heat? A hundred-twenty degree / 'cause I want to be free https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrFOb_f7ubw

Las Vegas too, and to some extent Denver/Pueblo/Fort Collins. A lot of people don’t seem to realize that Colorado is basically “cold desert”. Like yeah it’s not 115 degrees, but it’s still a very arid climate.

Seeing office buildings and apartments with lawns dyed green might be a tipoff. Or maybe they don't do that now.

I grew up in Tucson, there was a summer (1994?) where the temps were like ~115-120F and even at a young age I was wondering why the hell people willingly live there lol

One would think a delivery truck would have AC?

Also, sure, climate change, but Phoenix has always been in a desert, hasn't it? And every single year they have many people die because they are unhoused. Because it's a desert.

So why didn't they even ask that manager how many apartments or shelters were actually necessary?

> One would think a delivery truck would have AC?

UPS only last month reached an agreement to start putting AC in trucks, to begin rolling out next year. Amazon drivers are not unionized, so it might take OSHA or something before all such vehicles get AC?

I’ve noticed my EV’s AC can’t really keep up with >100F weather unless the car is moving, which pushes air past the radiator.

I know, because sometimes I sit and work with it “running” and the AC on. Doing that overheated the compressor on our 2008 ICE car, so I don’t think the problem is specific to EVs.

Anyway, I wonder how hard it is to cool a delivery van that doesn’t move much and whose door is opened every few minutes.

It's not just your EV. Most car ACs aren't really designed for scorching heat.

I do agree it's effectively impossible to cool a vehicle whose doors are going to be opened frequently--the aim should be to throw cool air at the driver and not worry about the rest of it.

Pretty rich to call summer in Phoenix a “heatwave”, it’s hot every year. This and last year had a much more tolerable June then many other Junes in recent memory.

How can a tech startup solve this problem?

Hear me out. We buy up a lot of buildings in the area and advertise them as communities where people can cool off in a shared space. It’ll have AC for everyone. We can name it WeCool.

Then we get SoftBank to invest…

What makes you think tech actually solves problems people have ;)

It always does! Ad-tech, health-tech, auto-tech - I love Silicon Valley!!!

If I were Michael Shaw, I too would be proud of my pronounced pectorals.

downvoted because he’s

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