An intolerable heat forecast for Persian Gulf


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WASHINGTON (AP) — Imagine a heat index -- combining heat and humidity -- that reaches 170 degrees.

A new study is warning that conditions may get just that hot, for hours at a time, in some parts of the Persian Gulf region by the end of the century, if carbon dioxide emissions continue at their current pace. And that would be just too hot for the human body to tolerate.

The study, resulting from computer simulations, appears in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The elderly and ill are hurt most by current heart waves. But experts say the future is expected to be so hot that healthy, fit people would be endangered.

One of the study's co-authors says the type of heat conditions envisioned would make Europe's 2003 heat wave "look like a refreshing day." That heat wave killed more than 70,000 people.

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