New: HeatRisk Provides Best Assessment of Summer Heat Impact [Video]

WOAY-TV (Oak Hill, WV): HeatRisk is a color-based index that provides a thorough overview of the risk for heat-related impacts.

Chief Meteorologist Chad Merrill has the information:

This product is meant to provide hot weather guidance for folks, especially asthma sufferers, the elderly, very young children and athletes. Utility companies can use it as a guide to assess when the biggest strain on energy use will be this summer.

Here’s an example of how the heat risk assessment is done:

Let’s say we hit a cool patch of temperatures the week before Memorial Day and then warm into the 70s for the holiday weekend. With the turn of the calendar, we see a major heat ridge develop in the East.

We are forecasting a low temperature of 64 degrees and high temperature of 82 degrees locally for the first day in June. The record high for June 1 is 86 degrees, so a high of 82 degrees …