The heat wave in 1995 that changed America

In the premiere episode, we talked about how the deadly Chicago Heat Wave of 1995 happened meteorologically speaking. It took less than a week to kill nearly 800 residents. It also changed how heat warnings are issued and how many municipalities respond. The co-hosts are Maddie Stover, a doctoral student in Physics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Steve Nesbitt, professor of Climate, Meteorology, and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Illinois.

In the first half of program, Stover and Nesbitt talked with social scientist Dr. Eric Klinenberg, Director of the Institute for Public Knowledge at New York University. Dr. Klinenberg is the author of Heat Wave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago. 

Funding for Weather Realness is partially provided by the Backlund Charitable Trust.  If you have a question for local meteorologists, leave a voicemail at 217.333.2141 or email weatherrealness@illinois.edu.