Extreme heat

The facts are undeniable. Climate change is making areas of the country, including Colorado, hotter. Research indicates that extreme heat (when temperatures are above 90 degrees) can harm individuals’ health. Extreme heat can lead to heat stroke and heat exhaustion and individuals are more likely to experience a variety of complications associated

with asthma, heart disease, mental illness, mental health, diabetes and pregnancy. In fact, some estimates show that extreme heat is annually responsible for 1,300 deaths, 75,000 emergency room visits and 10,000 hospitalizations.

Simply put, extreme heat is detrimental to our health. That's why HAWC is working to keep our communities safe from extreme heat events. Learn more about our work to ensure a right to cooling and other ways to keep communities safe and healthy from extreme heat.

Healthy Air

In 2016, Denver’s metro area was ranked as the eighth most ozone-polluted urban area in the United States by the American Lung Association. Pollutants can cause a myriad of detrimental health effects—exacerbating asthma, decreasing lung function, and even increasing risk of cardiovascular conditions, such as stroke.

Ground ozone, or the pollutants and chemicals near us that are heated in the sunlight, reaches the highest levels when temperatures are in the low-90s—something that has become even more frequent in recent years. Ozone is a lung irritant, which causes breathing problems particularly for more vulnerable groups, such as the young and elderly. More than 3.5 million Coloradans live in the 11 counties which experience one or more unhealthy ground-level ozone day per year.

Air quality is further impacted by our more frequent wildfires, which have happened more often as drought becomes more prevalent. On state and private lands in Colorado, the average annual land burned from wildfires increased more than tenfold from the 1960s to the 2010s. Smoke particles in the air can increase risk for lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, asthma and COPD, and have been linked to preterm births, developmental delays in children, type 2 diabetes, and dementia.

Healthy Water

As snowmelt drains earlier from our mountains due to higher temperatures, less water is available later in the year for agricultural purposes and recreational uses. In the Western United States, our higher temperatures increase the severity of droughts, which reduce water availability and dry out vegetation. Drought can affect our health by limiting access to clean water and imposing economic hardships on agricultural workers in water-dependent industries and their communities.

Higher temperatures can also speed algal growth in our water, and promote toxic species of algal over non-toxic ones. Harmful algal can cause symptoms ranging from skin irritation, diarrhea, and vomiting to liver or kidney damage. With our current levels of pollution, Colorado could see an average of about six more days each year with harmful algal blooms by 2050.

Even more, climate change does not only make drought more likely, but also increases the likelihood of extreme and erratic rainfall. In 2013, Colorado experienced one of the worst instances of flooding that it had in decades, producing flood conditions that killed eight people and led to more than $2 billion in damages. By scientific estimates, climate change increased the amount of rainfall during that flood period by 30 percent, and by 2080, the amount of rain falling during extreme 24-hour events could increase 15 to 20 percent across our state.

Healthy Colorado

Heat is one of the biggest climate-related dangers to health, according to the Center for Disease Control. Colorado’s average temperature has increased by two degrees in the past 30 years, and projections say the state’s average temperature could be five degrees higher by 2050.

When vulnerable populations are exposed to higher temperatures, instances of respiratory and cardiovascular issues increase, as well as hospital admissions for heat-related illnesses. Our warmer summers also put more people at risk for dehydration and heat stroke.

The seven percent of Colorado’s adults with diabetes can have trouble regulating their body temperature in warmer weather, and heat also affects how their bodies process insulin, requiring more frequent blood sugar tests. Seniors, in particular, are vulnerable, as age can hinder one’s ability to regulate temperature. But most of all, warmer summers impact people on socioeconomic lines, hurting the Coloradans who have jobs where they must work outside or who cannot afford air conditioning to keep their homes cool, and affecting those with the resources to stay out of the heat less.