As heat waves continue to spread across the U.S., Good Morning America‘s Ginger Zee is clarifying one aspect of her recent on-air weather reports.
The meteorologist addressed “heat index haters” in a Tuesday, June 24, Instagram video after viewers expressed their dislike of the ABC morning show displaying both the actual and feels-like temperatures.
“We show heat index because that is what a human feels,” she explained in the clip. “If I were forecasting for inanimate objects or your car or the sidewalk, I would keep it with temperature, definitely. But heat index includes the level of humidity and the level that your body can not evaporate to cool itself. So actually, heat index is the most important number that you need to know. “
Zee went on to note that reporting the heat index is “not new” and that doing so is “important.” She added, “I don’t get it. I don’t get why you hate it, but stop hating it. We will try to show both whenever possible. But also, if we have a short amount of time, knowing what the peak feels like is, that’s what we’re gonna show.”
On top of the Instagram video, Zee wrote, “Heat index started being widely used in the early 1980s. And before heat index it was called TEMPERATURE HEAT INDEX.”
She also showed one fan’s comment asking her to “please post the real temps.” The user wrote, “The ‘feels like’ temperature is like saying, ‘Bake this recipe in the ‘feels like’ 800° and for the time of ‘feels like 2000 minutes’ — when you don’t have air conditioning in the kitchen and the kids are eagerly waiting [for] dessert. I just need the old fashioned, regular temperature reported.”
Zee emphasized her comments in the post’s caption, writing, “Heat index isn’t new. It isn’t ‘made for tv’… it’s made for humans and safety. That’s why we show it. The National Weather Service bases its warnings on it. That is all.”
On Tuesday’s episode of GMA, Zee reported that temperature high records for June could be broken across the country amid the country’s current heat wave. “Philadelphia could go for their first 100 [degrees] in 13 years,” she stated. “You’re walking out the door, the temperature is 87 but it already feels like 93. That’s in the 7 a.m. hour. Wild, right?”
ABC
According to Zee, several states are currently under heat advisory, with some areas facing extreme warnings, such as Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
“The National Weather Service doesn’t just put these out for fun,” she told viewers. “What they do is they take the heat, the actual temperature, they add the humidity, and you get the heat index.”
Good Morning America, Weekdays, 7am/6c, ABC