California is the sunshine state. More people die in the Midwest and particularly Illinois from heat than in California. Give me a break. More people die from the cold in the Midwest and northeast than from our friend the sun. Ungrateful people. Look at Texas. They complained about a lack of rain, so they have more than they can handle. Look at the tornados of the Midwest and the hurricanes in Florida and the gulf. You better watch it, or Thor's hammer may give you an earthquake. Just stop your complaining.

This article's statement that "States don't yet have the tools to determine what constitutes a weather-related death" is not at all correct. Deaths occurring during heat waves or any other time can be certified by an attending physician or medical examiner as having been caused by high environmental temperatures according to World Health Organization criteria embodied in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10). Deaths caused by excessive ambient heat exposure are most frequently attributed to "heat stroke" or "hyperthermia" on the individual's death certificate, and since 1999 all such deaths have been given the ICD-10 code "X30, exposure to excessive natural heat." All deaths certified and coded this way are reported to the vital statistics offices of the states in which they occur and ultimately to the National Center for Health Statistics. Discussions of heat-related illness and death, and how to prevent them through municipal Heat Response Plans (HRPs), can easily be found at the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention web site (for an example, go to:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5425a2.htm)

Excess mortality during heat waves has been recognized as a serious public health problem for many years. Two facts are of primary importance: 1) during a heat wave or in any typically hot area (e.g. Arizona) those at greatest risk are the elderly, the very young, people with chronic cardiopulmonary disease, people with some cognitive disorders, and people taking certain types of medications, especially if such people do not have access to air conditioning (fans help but can actually make things worse); 2) excess mortality due to extremely hot weather can always be prevented if partners, caretakers, or acquaintances of high-risk people are aware of what to do to keep such persons as cool as possible and adequately hydrated.

Mother Jones - Comments for "Weird Weather Watch: Heat Wave Killed Nearly 500 Californians"