Humid Heat: A Growing Health Risk in a Warming Climate

Articles/Websites

Grades6-APEarth and Space Sciences, Health

Scientist Reviewed

Provided by Climate Central

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What it is

This article explains how climate change is intensifying humid heat, the dangerous combination of high temperature and high humidity, by increasing atmospheric moisture, compromising the body's ability to cool itself, and raising the frequency of dangerously high temperatures.
The resource includes an interactive humid heat GIS index, downloadable graphics, and an explainer video by meteorologist Shel Winkley.

Teaching tips

Classroom Implementation:

Use the four downloadable graphics and other accompanying activities or materials to create four stations (impacts of humid heat on health, how climate change intensifies the problem, dangers of humidity and heat, humid heat hotspots) that students walk through.
Have students choose two regions of the world, analyze them using the interactive GIS humid heat index, and compare them. Pair this with other interactive maps about the prevalence of other climate impacts (e.g., hurricanes), so students are comparing the effects of climate change around the world.

Interdisciplinary Connections:

Biology:
- Tie humid heat to an investigation of thermoregulation or water properties to deepen students' understanding of why humid heat is more dangerous than dry heat at the same temperature.
- Extend this by having students research how different animals adapt their cooling mechanisms to hot, humid environments.
Social Studies:
- Use the interactive GIS humid heat index alongside maps of population density, poverty rates, and access to air conditioning to examine why humid heat disproportionately affects low-income communities and countries in the Global South.
- Connect to history by examining heat-related disasters (e.g., the 1995 Chicago heat wave) and analyzing how policy responses did or did not protect vulnerable populations.
Health:
- Pair the article with a lesson on heat-related illness, warning signs, and first-aid responses.
- Have students develop a heat safety plan for an outdoor event in a high-humidity environment.

From the scientist review

This resource presents the health risks of climate change-induced humid heat. A strong collection of sources is linked in the text, with several peer-reviewed articles from top-tier journals cited. The included Climate Shift Index GIS tool allows students to visualize dangerous humid heat due to climate change. This resource is recommended for teaching.

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At a glance

Grades: 6-AP
Subjects: Earth and Space Sciences, Health
Other types: Videos, Data, Graphs, and Maps
Format: Downloadable MP4/M4V
Language: English, Spanish
Location: Earth
Provider: Climate Central
Authors: Climate Central
Published: May 22, 2026
Last updated: July 16, 2026
: Reviewed by our climate scientists How we review

Standards alignment · MS-ESS3-2. + 8 more

Core

Core Standards legacy

MS-ESS3-2.MS-ESS3-2. Analyze and interpret data on natural hazards to forecast future catastrophic events and inform the development of technologies to mitigate their effects.
HS-ESS2-5.HS-ESS2-5. Plan and conduct an investigation of the properties of water and its effects on Earth materials and surface processes.
HS-ESS3-5.HS-ESS3-5. Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.
1.8.31.8.3 Analyze how the environment affects personal health.
1.8.91.8.9 Examine the potential seriousness of injury or illness if engaging in unhealthy behaviors.
1.12.31.12.3 Analyze how environment and personal health are interrelated.
MS-ESS2-D.1.MS-ESS2-D.1. Weather and climate are influenced by interactions involving sunlight, the ocean, the atmosphere, ice, landforms, and living things. These interactions vary with latitude, altitude, and local and regional geography, all of which can affect oceanic and atmospheric flow patterns. (MS-ESS2-6)
MS-ESS3-D.MS-ESS3-D. Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (global warming). Reducing the level of climate change and reducing human vulnerability to whatever climate changes do occur depend on the understanding of climate science, engineering capabilities, and other kinds of knowledge, such as understanding of human behavior and on applying that knowledge wisely in decisions and activities. (MS-ESS3-5)
HS-ESS2-D.4.HS-ESS2-D.4. Current models predict that, although future regional climate changes will be complex and varied, average global temperatures will continue to rise. The outcomes predicted by global climate models strongly depend on the amounts of human-generated greenhouse gases added to the atmosphere each year and by the ways in which these gases are absorbed by the ocean and biosphere. (secondary to HS-ESS3-6)

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