# More than 90 deaths in Quebec Due to Heat Wave **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245 "2018-07-20T00:46:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/21 "2018-07-22T05:00:32Z")
> [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > Yes deaths during that Chicago heat wave were real. But a great many of them were elderly people who refused to even open their windows because they were afraid of being robbed so ended up in stuffy rooms over 110 and nothing moving. By contrast, I read about one woman who went to an air conditioned mall every day and then went back to her apartment and slept covered with wet towels and the air blowing over her. She survived fine. A temperature of 95, going down to 75 over night is just not that extreme. And I am 81 with heart disease. Remember that in the Chicago heat waver, there was a stretch of a few days with temps over 100, heat indices in the upper 110s, and lows in the upper 70s, lower 80s. It was the humidity that just made it absolutely brutal. Dew points were in the upper 70s. At Midway (where I live) the heat index hit 125F on July 13, the peak of the heatwave (high 104, low 81 at ORD.) I remember picking up double shifts left and right that week, as my job was fully air-conditioned, but my room was not. ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/22 "2018-07-22T23:26:04Z")
It sounds similar to Hawaii where it tends to be about 70 degrees F year around and maybe drop to the 50’s in winter and only hit high 80’s in August. So most Hawaiians just open windows. The Hawaiians I met just had a window unit for a bedroom. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/23 "2018-07-22T23:31:54Z")
Eh, what sounds similar to Hawaii? I am not following you. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/24 "2018-07-23T00:10:46Z")
I’m not calling bs but it seem odd. For example I live in Visalia CA. We’ve been experiencing triple digit temps the last several weeks. Tuesday for example it’s supposed to be 105. I’m oldish (63) and work without AC usually. Yeah it’s hot but I’m doing it. I worked in a house last week that had no AC and people live there. If people are dropping like flies here I’m not hearing about it. ---
**Author:** ![Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/arrogance_ex_machina/32/192_2.png) [@Arrogance\_Ex\_Machina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrogance_Ex_Machina)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/25 "2018-07-23T00:41:51Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > If people are dropping like flies here I’m not hearing about it. Old and/or chronically ill people dying isn’t very sexy news. Still if you pay attention media makes a story about heatwave deaths every now and then, you just need to dig for it a bit. I remember reading about a Finnish study that said that mortality in Finland rises both above and below 14 C average outdoor temperature, though I have no idea how steep the curve is. It’s kinda like deaths due to influenza, there’s a lot of those every year but usually there’s no big news story unless the numbers really go up or there’s younger victims. ---
**Author:** ![Weisshund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ba8739/32.png) [@Weisshund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weisshund)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/26 "2018-07-23T02:57:25Z")
> [@Lucas\_Jackson](#): > > I’m not calling bs but it seem odd. For example I live in Visalia CA. We’ve been experiencing triple digit temps the last several weeks. Tuesday for example it’s supposed to be 105. I’m oldish (63) and work without AC usually. Yeah it’s hot but I’m doing it. I worked in a house last week that had no AC and people live there. > > If people are dropping like flies here I’m not hearing about it. In CA, even your old or frail persons are probably more acclimated to those temps though. And the buildings are made for hot weather, in canada not so much. Plus if it is humid, it is worse than if it was hotter. 110 and no humidity at least you can sweat and it actually works, take 98° @ 105% humidity and you are simply soaking wet with no cooling effect. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/27 "2018-07-23T03:27:39Z")
I kinda don’t understand the skepticism. Earlier this Summer, the a/c (central) unit stopped working in my apartment that I share with my sons and for three days we suffered through 85-88 degree temps in the apartment with very high humidity, open windows and three strong fans going. It’s literally amazing how much hotter it can get inside than outside when you have a situation like that. It was like 78 degrees outside and ten degrees hotter inside. I can’t imagine how much hotter it would have been inside if this had happened a couple days ago when it was 95 degrees outside with heat indices into the 100’s. It would have been over 100 degrees inside the place. It doesn’t help that our apartment only has three windows in three separate rooms, all on the same wall. Not very conducive to airflow, depending on the direction of the wind. FWIW, I live in SE Indiana near Cincinnati. It does get very hot and humid here in the Summer. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/28 "2018-07-23T17:38:00Z")
The [2003 heat wave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_European_heat_wave) in Europe is blamed for 70,000 excess deaths. ---
**Author:** ![Geek\_Mecha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecae2f/32.png) [@Geek\_Mecha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Geek_Mecha)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2018, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245/29 "2018-07-23T18:37:09Z")
> [@Urbanredneck](#): > > It sounds similar to Hawaii where it tends to be about 70 degrees F year around and maybe drop to the 50’s in winter and only hit high 80’s in August. So most Hawaiians just open windows. > > The Hawaiians I met just had a window unit for a bedroom. You’re about 10 degrees too low on all your figures. If that was what the weather was like, I never would have left home. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-than-90-deaths-in-quebec-due-to-heat-wave/818245.md?page=1)