As climate change creates ‘super-charged’ heatwaves, they are also claiming more lives. This year, Heat Action Day’s #BeatTheHeat message focuses on recognizing the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke and how to cool down and stay safe.
Heatwaves are often referred to as ‘silent killers’ because, while they often claim many lives, they do so one at time in many separate places: at a workplace, in a stifling apartment or on a scorching city sidewalk.
But as climate change pushes average temperatures higher, it is also leading to more frequent extreme heat events. What was once “a few hot days” now stretches into weeks-long spells that define entire summers and lead to thousands of deaths due to heat exhaustion, heat stroke and dehydration.
Unfortunately, many people don’t recognize the warning signs until it’s too late or they don’t know how to respond quickly and effectively once the signs are clear.
Although anyone can be affected by extreme heat, groups like elderly, young children, pregnant women and workers, both indoor and outdoor, are most at risk.
Launched in 2022, Heat Action Day (HAD) is a global day of awareness and action on extreme heat. Led by Red Cross Red Crescent National Societies and partners, HAD mobilizes cities, communities, and organizations around the world to take simple yet life-saving steps to protect people from heat-related illnesses.
So, how do you recognize heat exhaustion or heat stroke?
Heat exhaustion occurs when your body overheats and can’t cool itself down. Here’s what to look for:
Heavy sweating
Cool, pale clammy skin
Dizziness or fainting.
Rapid, weak pulse
Nausea or headache
What to do?
Take a cool shower or use cold compresses.
Get to a cooler place.
Drink water if fully conscious.
How to recognize heat stroke?
Heat exhaustion can progress to life-threatening heat stroke. Here’s what to look for:
Confusion or disorientation,
No sweating despite hot conditions.
Fainting or seizures
What to do?
Call for medical help immediately. Move the person to a cool place, cool them with water or ice packs, and stay with them until help arrives.
Provide water and advise to drink if fully conscious.
Move to a cool place, hydrate with water, and rest until symptoms improve.
A volunteer with the Bahrain Red Crescent Society visits with construction workers who are exposed to high daytime temperatures during their daily work to share information and supplies that can help them prevent heat stroke and heat exhaustion. Photo: Bahrain Red Crescent Society
Climate change is ‘super charging’ heatwaves
Beyond the immediate acts one can take to save lives on a hot day, the IFRC is also using the occasion of Heat Action Day to release a new report – ‘Heat through the eyes of the most vulnerable: perceptions and pathways to action’. The report highlights how mounting global temperatures are making heatwaves more frequent and intense — in a sense, “super-charging” them.
In a separate report today, released last week by Climate Central and World Weather Attribution, scientists have found that in the past year, about half the world’s entire population experienced at least 30 additional days of extreme heat, largely due to climate change. “All 67 major heat events in the past year were made more likely by climate change,“ the WWA team say.
Here are a few examples:
In Central Asia, an extraordinary March 2025 heatwave was up to 10C hotter due to climate change.
The United Arab Emirates experienced its hottest month of May in history this year.
In March 2025, schools were shuttered in South Sudan for two weeks due to a heatwave, disrupting a critical resource for children.
In 2024 a heatwave in the Sahel led to maximum temperatures over 45°C across the region, including a record of 48.5C in Kayes, Mali on April 3. At the same time there was a surge in hospital admissions and 102 deaths recorded at Gabriel Touré hospital in Bamako, Mali with reports indicating that heat likely played a role in many of the deaths.
“Every nudge up in global warming increases the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwaves,” said Jagan Chapagain, Secretary General of the IFRC in his introduction to the report. “This has devastating consequences, ranging from physical and mental health impacts to disruptions to critical systems – and even heightened conflict.
“Despite its deadly and wide-reaching impacts, heat remains under-recognized in policy, under-prioritized in adaptation planning and under-resourced in local implementation.
“Heat disrupts health, weakens social systems, and triggers cascading failures in water, food, electrical and transport infrastructure,” he added. “Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers see the effects of heat firsthand: from newborns and elderly people showing up more often in healthcare settings, to changes in community life as people use public spaces less and adjust their lives around the hottest times of day.
“Financial, social and systemic barriers prevent people from taking protective action. For example, outdoor workers who are generally young and healthy must make impossible choices between their health and making a daily wage.”
Among other things, the report recommends that national and local authorities and communities develop Heat Action Plans and train volunteers to do first aid for heat and more critical, life-saving actions. Heat Action Plans, early warning systems, urban greening, passive cooling and anticipatory heat action have proven effective. Heat action must be funded, localized, and designed with and for those most affected, the report concludes.
Volunteers with the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society give umbrella hats to rickshaw drivers who spend hours transporting people and goods through scorching city streets. The volunteers also provide water and information on how to avoid heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Photo: Bangladesh Red Crescent Society
From ‘cool’ bus stops to free water and sun-block: Heat Action Day 2025 rolls out around the world
Meanwhile, dozens of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies — along with many local organizations and authorities around the world — are joining in with a range of Heat Action initiatives and events. Here are just a few examples:
In Egypt, the Sustainable Tomorrow Initiative (STI), in collaboration with the Egyptian Red Crescent, has launched a digital awareness campaign for Heat Action Day (HOT days, SAFE Ways) to educate the public about the rising risks of extreme heat due to climate change, and to promote simple, life-saving practices to stay safe during heatwaves.
The North Texas chapter of the American Red Cross is rolling out new artwork and themed T-shirts along with a press conference at Dallas city hall.
The West Bengal branch of the Indian Red Cross is distributing drinking water and education material to pedestrians, police and drivers working outdoors.
The Turkish Red Crescent seven-day action series comprises awareness and follow-up, sun protection, domestic temperature management, advice on activity (nothing strenuous!) and clothing, nutrition and hydration, checking on vulnerable people and, lastly, animals.
As part of the build-up to Heat Action Day this year, Geneva, Switzerland is setting up air-conditioned spaces for the public as well as “cool bus stands“ and other cooling centres in museums, libraries, shopping centres and retirement homes.
The Indian city of Churu, which saw temperatures in excess of 50°C in 2024, is launching its own action plan that “blends local wisdom with data” and strengthens coordination between local, district, and state authorities.
Pakistan‘s Community Development Foundation NGO has started working on heatwaves, training volunteers and health workers and setting up what it‘s calling heat stabilization centres.
EU mayors‘ Cities Refresh campaign is a call to action for European cities to redesign urban spaces and communities for a cooler and more resilient future.
The Asian Development Bank is sharing knowledge resources from a technical assistance project on strengthening women‘s resilience to heat stress in Asia and the Pacific.
Iraqi Red Crescent volunteers take their message to the street as they talk to motorcycle riders and raise awareness about how to avoid the dangerous health effects of extreme heat. Photo: Iraqi Red Crescent Society
Learn more about heatwaves, climate change and how to prevent heatstroke:
• For more information about how climate change driven heatwaves events please see World Weather Attribution
