I just deployed a Mastodon bot that posts forecasts for the most dangerous upcoming heatwaves
You can follow it at
To determine how dangerous a heatwave is, it uses wet-bulb temperature, which is the temperature that a body can be cooled to by evaporation
Sweating works to cool you because generally the wet-bulb temperature is lower than body temperature
As wet-bulb temperature increases and approaches body temperature, people can no longer cool themselves by sweating and will die
@heatwave And apologies to Americans, this is a Celsius-speaking bot
If there is enough interest I might deploy an alternate Fahrenheit version of the bot
@LilyoftheRally @eob @heatwave
Can you givexus a verse for understanding Fahrenheit?
For understanding Fahrenheit:
Frostbite at 20;
Freeze at 32;
Chilly at 60;
Charred past 100.
@eob @heatwave I have always believed that if we intend on getting a message across to someone we must speak at their level. Climate change is a critical issue and using Fahrenheit is important so that those in the US understand the message. They also happen to be the biggest contributer to CC. In an ideal world they would understand Celcius but they don't.
So it would be advantageous to also use Fahrenheit .
@MichaelBishop @heatwave Good point.
I have created a second bot, @heatwave_usa , which is for heat waves just in the USA, and I configured it to present the temperatures in Fahrenheit
Why not just have one that's global and includes both C/F? Would be beneficial for everyone to see that extreme weather events are happing everywhere.
51 hours from now in Port O'Connor, United States of America the wet-bulb temperature will be 27°C This will be a margin of 10 degrees below body temperature which will be uncomfortable The humidity will be 89% The actual temperature will be 28°C It will feel like 35°C There will will be moderate rain https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Port%20O'Connor%22+United%20States%20of%20America+excessive+heat https://tile.openstreetmap.org/6/14/26.png
@raphaelmorgan @Andres4NY @heatwave Yeah, I need to improve how the place is presented, either by having a more unambiguous name, or by showing the location explicitly on a map
It turns out the intended Sebastian in this case is actually in Texas, just across the border from Mexico, so it is on the little map, just it is such a small place that it is not named
Here it is in another map:
@eob @raphaelmorgan @Andres4NY @heatwave
Yeah, the US is full of place names that repeat in more than one state. 😯
One of the oddest things for me when reading a map of another state, is finding small towns with the same name as cities in my state, or vice-versa! 😅
So yes, some clarity would make a big difference! 😎
@5ciFiGirl @raphaelmorgan @Andres4NY @heatwave Thanks for the feedback.
I updated the bot to include the state. Hopefully that makes in more useful.
I also added a separate US-specific bot: @heatwave_usa
@eob @heatwave
I don't mind getting the measurements in logical units... For my part, the conversion is pretty trivial.
I do have one adaptation that might be useful: I notice that it mentions specific cities and the country... I suspect mentioning state/province/region would be handy for some of us. Like, for my location I could follow and filter specifically for mentions of Oregon and Washington.
@drwho @heatwave This is the formula I used:
https://github.com/eobrain/heat-wave/blob/main/wetbulb.js
Strictly speaking, wet-bulb temperature can only be measured by a physical device, but this formula seems to be a reasonable estimate based just on temperature and relative humidity
@Ruth_Mottram @heatwave Thanks
It runs on a small cheap Linux cloud server
I deployed a program that when run, uses the OpenWeather API to find a forecast with high wet-bulb temperature and then generates a Mastodon post
I use the standard Linux cron service to invoke it once an hour
Looks like a good way of getting people to take climate change more seriously 👏
Any chance of putting the source of the info on the actual account profile? I know it's there on the website but it takes a bit of digging, it might add credibility to the warning if the source is right there?
Great bot, have followed.
You have a small error in the last sentence where you have a double "will"
Okay, thanks!
Thank you! This is the clearest explanation of wet-bulb temperatures that I have seen! I am finally starting to understand what it means! 😎
And I will definitely follow this bot!
@zir4n @5ciFiGirl Thanks for the feedback. Yes, perhaps the language of the posts is over-dramatic and does not have enough nuance.
A more nuanced wording might use something like "unprotected people" or "people without access to air conditioning". And maybe the wording should say something about how important the length of time exposed to the excessive heat, which is another factor.
I'll see if I can come up with other wording, perhaps citing a reputable source
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