When most of us picture the U.S. state of Minnesota, we probably imagine snow, iced-over lakes, and guys sitting in little shacks on said frozen lakes, shivering as they haul fish up through an axe-chopped hole. But just this summer, it hit 97 degrees Fahrenheit (36.1 degrees Celsius) outside my room in Minneapolis.
Compared to the rest of the United States right now, that’s not even that bad. Phoenix, Arizona has had 24 consecutive days with temperatures above 110 degrees F (43 C), so hot that their emergency rooms are filling up with people burning themselves on asphalt.
Why is heat so bad for us? What happens in the human body outside our ideal temperature of around 70 degrees F (21 degrees C) that hurts us?