5 scary facts about Florida heat waves

Between the alligators, water moccasins, diseased mosquitoes, rude tourists and senile drivers we’re pretty much always on our guard in Florida. Yes, summers are hot and any Florida resident worth her salt knows to drink water, but since when has a little heat been scary?

First off, it’s not a little heat, it’s record-breaking heat.

Second, here’s 5 scary things you’ve never heard of because they just weren’t a big problem until we started breaking heat records. While the tone of this article is light at times, the problems our state is facing in terms of heat waves are incredibly scary.

Corals are bleaching

This is perhaps one of the biggest environmental challenges our marine networks have ever tackled. When the water around corals reaches a certain temperature, they expel the algae that provides nourishment and gives them color. This is called bleaching. It turns vibrant and colorful underwater colonies white and barren. Often the coral dies, though sometimes it’s able to come back. Last summer the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) declared the fourth global bleaching event on record. Florida ocean temperatures stayed above the bleaching threshold for a record breaking 3 month period  and we lost a majority of the elkhorn and staghorn coral outplants in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. This year the heat wave set in even sooner and a bleaching warning was issued a month earlier than last year. Losing our iconic Florida reef, the only barrier reef in the United States, is scary on every level. The devastating impact to biodiversity in our waters, economic livelihoods and environmental beauty is unthinkable.

Increase in flesh-eating bacteria

Vibrio bacteria occur naturally in some coastal waters and contain a category of flesh-eating bacteria. There are about 12 vibrio species that can cause a human illness called vibriosis, which gives you bad diarrhea and stomach pain. And there are several species that can cause life-threatening infections when the bacteria kills the flesh around an open wound. According to the Centers For Disease Control, 1 in 5 people who get this type of open wound infection die. These bacteria grow faster when water temperatures increase, like they are now. A study last summer showed that these bacteria aggressively bond to plastic, something we have an abundance of in our coastal waters and on beaches. The study also looked at the role Sargassum seaweed plays in bringing this bacteria loaded plastic onshore. The Sargassum seaweed belt stretches roughly 5,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Plastic and trash regularly get trapped among the seaweed and for the past decade or so large portions of that belt have washed up on our eastern shores, carrying all that plastic and flesh-eating bacteria with it.

Only female sea turtles can take the heat

Florida is home to several endangered sea turtle species including the loggerhead, leatherback and green sea turtle. Turtles make nests and lay eggs to reproduce and the sex of the hatchlings is actually determined by the temperature of that nest. If nest temperatures stay above 88 degrees during the roughly 30 day incubation period, the hatchlings will be female. Nesting season in Florida runs from March until October and for at least the past two years water temperatures stayed above 88 degrees longer than normal. These turtles already face threats from vessel strikes, marine debris and plastic ingestion, now marine heat waves are reducing the number of male hatchlings, which lowers the opportunity for turtles to reproduce. Extremely high nest temperatures can also affect embryo development causing deformities and abnormalities in hatchlings.

Heat waves lead to more “super” storms

Warm waters typically allow hurricane conditions to intensify faster. So a storm can become much stronger in a shorter period of time. This is bad news for Florida. Tropical storms and hurricanes that come in off of the Atlantic often lose intensity and speed in the Caribbean islands when the storm comes in contact with land. Many times they don’t have enough time to build back up to a devastating degree before coming in contact with the Florida coast, though occasionally they do. Warmer Atlantic and Gulf temperatures will allow those storms to build faster, increasing the chances of our state experiencing more category 4 and 5 storms. Warm water temperatures combined with the favorable wind patterns of a La Nina weather system make hurricane season predictions for the summer of 2024 downright scary.

Deadly cases of heat stroke increase

Heat stroke happens when your body’s core temperature reaches 104 degrees or higher. It requires immediate medical attention to prevent damage to your brain or other organs. If left untreated it can take your life. Heat related deaths have increased nationwide by 88% in 3 years. Florida has the highest amount of heat related illnesses in the United States. And a study by the Florida Policy Institute shows that 26% of our population is vulnerable to extreme heat. Couple that with the fact that many of our jobs are outdoors. Amusement parks, construction, lawn maintenance and recreation are some of the largest employers in our state. Dozens of workers die each year due to heat related illness in Florida, we can expect those numbers to grow as temperatures increase.