STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Many extreme weather events have names, like Hurricane Beryl or California's Park Fire, so now people are talking about naming heat waves.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Heat Wave Steve.
INSKEEP: (Laughter) I'm not a heat wave.
FADEL: What?
INSKEEP: I'm more of an overcast day.
FADEL: Oh.
INSKEEP: But I think Heat Wave Leila would work. How about you?
FADEL: I feel like I'm a hurricane.
INSKEEP: Oh, you're a hurricane.
FADEL: Definitely a hurricane.
INSKEEP: OK. We'll save her for the hurricane. But anyway, they're talking of naming heat waves, and we have more on this from Drew Hawkins from the Gulf States Newsroom.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
DREW HAWKINS, BYLINE: It was about 1 in the afternoon on Bourbon Street during the June heat wave when I ran into local chef Maestro Latouche. The heat index felt like it was 104. But for Latouche, it was otherworldly - or maybe underworldly.
MAESTRO LATOUCHE: The heat right now in New Orleans is, like, on fire. It's like hell itself.
HAWKINS: It's always hot in the summers here, but it's getting worse. Scientists know that heat waves are more intense and more frequent now because of human-caused climate change. And New Orleans is at the top of the list among major U.S. cities with the largest increase in heat wave duration.
I grew up here, and names like Hurricanes Katrina and Ida immediately trigger memories of disaster. And nearly everyone I talked to about this idea of naming extreme heat said the same thing. Here's Walt McDaniel, a doorman in the French Quarter.
WALT MCDANIEL: Sounds like a good idea. Sounds like something, you know, that's useful.
HAWKINS: While we're talking, one of his co-workers, Nicolas Smith, jumps the velvet rope blocking the entrance to introduce himself. And he's a bit of an oversharer.
NICOLAS SMITH: I'm commando at work, man. It's too hot.
HAWKINS: But he says he's in favor of the idea of naming extreme heat events.
SMITH: If today - if they said, yeah, heat check, heat check, Scorcher is coming out, oh, I'm staying inside. I'm calling off work. Like, if you name it Scorcher - you feel me?
HAWKINS: And just up the road, on Bourbon Street, Riley Hanson is in town visiting from Arizona, which has already seen record-setting heat waves this year. And he says a heat wave with a name would affect how he makes his plans.
RILEY HANSON: I'd probably wait. Maybe - probably wait to travel. Maybe delay it a week or something like that till the heat wave's over.
KATHY BAUGHMAN MCLEOD: Naming heat waves can absolutely save lives.
HAWKINS: That's Kathy Baughman McLeod, who heads the global nonprofit Climate Resilience for All, and she co-authored a study that looked at the world's first named heat wave. It was called Zoe, and it scorched Seville, Spain, for six days in 2022. And the study found that people took more precautions because of the name.
BAUGHMAN MCLEOD: If you know about it, know what to do about it and have the capacity to do it, nobody has to die.
HAWKINS: Some meteorologists say naming heat waves may not be effective and could lead to more confusion. Heat waves and heat domes can overlap, so you could end up with two names over one area. In an email statement, the National Weather Service says they don't name heat waves because they're, quote, "highly contextual." A hundred degrees in Arizona may not be as dangerous as 100 degrees in Maine because of things like humidity and air conditioning. And it may not change much for people who have to work in the heat, like fisherman Nathan Boudreaux.
NATHAN BOUDREAUX: It could be rain, sleet, snow, tornadoes. I got to come to work.
HAWKINS: We're just outside New Orleans at the Westwego Shrimp Lot - think daily farmers' market for local seafood.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Let me tell y'all. It's hot out here. We burning.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Let me tell y'all. It's hot out here. We burning.
HAWKINS: It's a melting pot - or maybe a gumbo pot - of the region's cultures, with Cajun, Creole and Vietnamese vendors and fishermen. Susie Oubre has been bagging fresh shrimp here for 40 years. And she says, as the heat gets worse, a name could make a difference. She may choose to stay indoors.
SUSIE OUBRE: 'Cause I'm too old. I'm really, you know, getting at the age where I can't come out here like that when it's too hot.
HAWKINS: For now, the National Weather Service has not completely nixed the idea of naming heat events, and it says it appreciates research that helps the agency understand how to best respond to extreme heat.
For NPR News, I'm Drew Hawkins in New Orleans. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
