As global warming worsens, impacts of extreme weather events such as heatwaves continue to affect public health and claim lives. However, there is no universal definition of what constitutes a heatwave. SEI Affiliate Researcher Simon J. Mason and University of Adelaide Professor John Nairn advocate for the World Meteorological Association’s new definition of a heatwave in this The Lancet Planetary Health comment, in tandem with an early warning system for communities.
During the past 20 years, almost half a million heat-related excess deaths have occurred each year, with roughly half of these deaths taking place in Asia. As climate change worsens, such deaths are only predicted to grow. However, what constitutes a heatwave differs across disciplines, posing a challenge to developing solutions. A lack of available data and research only exacerbates the issue.
In a comment published in The Lancet Planetary Health, Simon K. Mason and John Nairn argue that adopting a more universally accepted definition of a heatwave, such as that introduced this year by the World Meteorological Association, would allow for better heat action plans and community preparation. They propose including heatwaves as a measurable weather phenomenon and incorporating them into multihazard early warning systems alongside other more common weather phenomena.
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