Thermoregulation

It's set to be another scorching summer, with extreme and prolonged heat waves forecast across many parts of the United States and Europe.

"The persistence of high temperatures for long periods of time is worrying us," says Dr. Kostas Lagovardos - The "hot, dry, windy" phenomenon and the ongoing heat stress on the population

As temperatures and humidity soar outside, what's happening inside the human body can become a life-or-death battle decided by just a few degrees.

The critical danger point outdoors for illness and death from relentless heat is several degrees lower than experts once thought, say researchers who put people in hot boxes to see what happens to them.

Scientists have identified the maximum mix of heat and humidity a human body can survive.

Even a healthy young person will die after enduring six hours of 35-degree Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) warmth when coupled with 100 percent humidity, but new research shows that threshold could be significantly lower.

What happens to the body when a human gets heatstroke? How can we protect ourselves in a warming planet? To answer these burning questions, Arizona researchers have deployed a robot that can breathe, shiver and sweat.

A 46-year-old man has died of suspected heatstroke on the island of Evia.

Reports say the man was cycling on a street in Halkida, the island's capital.

Upon his arrival to hospital in an ambulance, he had a body temperature of 41 degrees Celsius.

True Greek Summer temperatures

Four tourists have died in the Swiss Alps and five others are in a bad state after being forced to spend the night out in the Pin d'Arola area because of bad weather, police of Canton Vale said.
 
The rescuers found a total of 14 people, some of whom had hypothermia, and one was dead, apparently as a result of a fall.

Police in a region of Greece that borders Turkey say another person has died of hypothermia on a route used by migrant smugglers despite freezing temperatures.

Authorities said the body of a man was discovered buried in snow outside a Greek village on Monday. They think he probably died over the weekend.

The human-traders are not willing to slow down the refugee flows. Without hesitations they lead lightly-dressed people into the river of Evros in northern Greece. The result, as expected, is that people are running the risk of hypothermia or even death, unless they are found really fast by the authorities.