It’s officially time to strip. June 21 marked the first day of summer, ushering in what will probably be the hottest season yet. Last summer saw a nasty North American heat wave that caused over 82 deaths and a number of bizarre weather patterns (the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest derecho, for example), and gave way to a Superstorm that wiped out over 200 people—all due to record high temperatures. I can only imagine what’s in store for this summer.Temperatures have already skyrocketed, and are expected to break records soon if they haven’t already. Earlier this year, Australia had a record-breaking heat wave that pushed temperatures up to 121 degrees. In Alaska’s largest city, temperatures reached as much as 20 degrees above normal, causing floods along the Yukon River and $10 million in damage. As temperatures continue to climb, more disasters will plague our environment. I could just list 2013 events that occurred so far like Wisconsin’s largest fire in 33 years and an unusual swarm of bees, but it might just be easier to put all these events into one place.That’s where this handy interactive Google map comes in. Created by Grist, the map shows all the heat-related incidents in North America. The map is open to the public so people can add incidents in their areas as they happen. Report the problem and include links, photos, and sources where you can, and it will be added to the (soon-to-be long) list of heat-related issues throughout the region.When autumn rolls around, Grist hopes to have a complete report of every occurrence so we can map all the scars from this summer. Until then, stay hydrated--just lay off the bottled water.
