By DALIA FAHEID Fort Worth Star-Telegram/TNS
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FORT WORTH, Texas — Over the next 30 years, Texas and other parts of the central U.S. are at risk of being exposed to extreme heat — temperatures exceeding 125 degrees.

The human body can no longer tolerate heat at these levels. A study published in 2010 estimated that a wet-bulb temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit at 100% humidity, or 115 degrees at 50% humidity, would be the upper limit of safety, beyond which the human body can no longer cool itself by evaporating sweat from the surface of the body to maintain a stable body core temperature.

Another way to calculate how dangerous the heat can be is with the heat index. The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when combined with humidity and air temperature.

A climate study found that an “Extreme Heat Belt” is forming through the middle of the United States. Texas is part of the Extreme Heat Belt, an area of the U.S. highly vulnerable to extreme heat exposure, according to the report by the First Street Foundation, a climate assessment nonprofit. At least one day a year, there’s a high likelihood that Texas will hit 125 degrees, the National Weather Service’s extreme heat threshold.

“It’s gotten hotter now than it was in the past, but we’re not done with the increasing exposure to extreme heat,” Jeremy Porter, First Street’s chief research officer, told the Star-Telegram. “It’s going to continue to increase into the future.”