Results found: 48
of 4
Resource Hub
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | 2024
From child health professionals to children themselves, users can navigate the Kids and Climate Health Zone by clicking on the black and white pin icons to read stories and learn how to protect children throughout the United States from the impacts of climate change, including how heat affects pregnant women and teenage athletes.
Mobile App
AIHA | 2024
The AIHA heat Stress application uses cutting-edge science to keep outdoor workers and laborers all over the world safe. Leveraging real-time weather information, our application calculates Wet Bulb Globe Temperature and associated risk scoring and makes recommendations based on the real weather conditions you might be experiencing, or a location that you might want to track. Customize results using inputs for effort, cloud cover, and clothing worn. Customize alerts to rest, drink fluids, and be notified of changing conditions. Review resources on heat health safety, as well as recommendations for first aid.
Resource Hub
New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection | 2024
Recognizing the undeniable challenges that increasingly hotter days have on the health and welfare of New Jersey residents, the State has created an online space dedicated to heat resilience. Heat Hub NJ is a digital resource on all things related to extreme heat in NJ. We invite you to use this site to learn the basics of extreme heat, how it is impacting daily life and the environment, the risks it poses to human health and wellbeing, and if you or a loved one are particularly vulnerable to the effects of extreme heat.
Resource Hub
Hot weather and health: supporting vulnerable people - England
UK Health Security Agency | 2024
This guidance offers advice for caring for people most at risk during a hot weather. It is part of a wider collection of documents providing guidance on how to minimise the health effects of adverse weather and to build community resilience.
Resource Portal
Resource Portal: Les gestes et astuces pour mieux vivre avec la chaleur
Santé publique France | 2024
Dans l’année, les températures augmentent de plus en plus tôt, et il fait chaud de plus en plus longtemps. Il devient difficile pour tout le monde de se sentir bien pendant ces longues périodes de chaleur : les activités du quotidien sont plus pénibles et fatigantes, ce qui peut affecter la santé. Il existe néanmoins des solutions pour mieux vivre avec la chaleur, en adaptant son quotidien et son logement.
Vous trouverez sur ce site de nombreuses astuces pour :
- vous sentir mieux chez vous. Nos conseils vous aideront à garder une température la plus confortable possible chez vous quand il fait chaud, selon votre type de logement et votre budget ;
- trouver où aller si vous avez trop chaud chez vous ;
- faire du sport en toute sécurité. En adaptant votre pratique à la chaleur, il est possible de continuer de faire du sport même en été : nous vous expliquons tout !
Tool
CDC Climate & Health Program
The Heat and Health Index (HHI) is a national tool that incorporates historical temperature, heat-related illness, and community characteristics data at the ZIP code level to identify areas most likely to experience negative health outcomes from heat and help communities prepare for heat in a changing climate. Each ZIP code has a single ranking for the overall HHI and rankings for individual components so that users can make informed decisions to prepare for and prevent the negative health impacts from heat in their communities.
Mobile App
North Shore Emergency Management NSEM | 2019
Do you live on or visit the North Shore? North Shore Emergency Management uses Alertable to send out alerts for emergencies such as severe weather, disasters, industrial hazards, and transportation accidents or marine spills. Alerts are also issued if you need to evacuate or shelter-in-place, or if there is an Amber Alert. Notifications are fast, reliable, and easy to see and hear. Alertable is free to download!
Toolkit
NOAA | 2014
The Climate Explorer gives users a way to check how climate conditions in the United States are projected to change over the coming decades. This information—derived from global climate models—is available for counties and county-equivalents for all 50 states and U.S. territories in the United States.
Built to accompany the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit, Climate Explorer graphs projections for two possible futures: one in which humans drastically reduce and stabilize global emissions of heat-trapping gases (labeled Lower emissions, also known as RCP4.5), and one in which we continue increasing emissions through the end of the 21st century (labeled Higher emissions, also known as RCP8.5). Note that only higher emissions projections are available for Alaska. Decision makers can check climate projections based on these two plausible futures and then plan according to their tolerance for risk and the timeframe of their decisions.
For the contiguous United States, the tool also displays observations of climate variables from 1950 to 2013. Users can compare observations to modeled history (results called hindcasts, or projections generated for the past) for the same period. Checking how observations compare to modeled history provides some insight on the models’ collective ability to reproduce past conditions. For temperature-related variables, the range of observations are generally within the envelope of modeled history (hindcasts), indicating model skill in simulating observed conditions. For some variables—especially precipitation-related variables—comparing observations with hindcasts reveals limitations of the models.
Risk Assessment Tool
U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), U.S. Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), Department of the Interior (DOI), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) | 2022
Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation (CMRA) helps people assess their local exposure to climate-related hazards. Understanding exposure is the first step in determining which people, property, and infrastructure could be injured or damaged by climate-related hazards, and what options might be available to protect these assets.
Research shows that every $1 invested in proactive climate hazard mitigation can save $6-$12 in post-disaster recovery costs. Thus, CMRA also helps communities identify potential federal funding opportunities that can be used to plan and implement climate resilience plans.
CMRA is particularly recommended for people working with community organizations and in local, Tribal, state, and Federal government offices who wish to pursue grant funds available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and/or other Federal grant funds to support equitable climate resilience building projects.
CMRA is designed to work with the U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit. It integrates decision-relevant information from across the U.S. Federal government, including:
- Climate maps and data — both historical observations and future projections;
- Non-climate data — including building codes and economic justice and social vulnerability information; and
- Federal grant funding opportunities.
Education Platform
Arsht-Rock & Minecraft | 2024
The Minecraft Extreme Heat Series can teach students about heat resilience in an engaging, innovative way. Arsht-Rock’s Global Chief Heat Officer Eleni Myrivili and our gaming team of experts worked with Minecraft Education and Rewrite Edu to embed climate resilience content in the game. Players can take away real-world solutions to the climate crisis.
Through in-game scenarios, players learn to recognize the symptoms of heat exhaustion and heat stroke and how to respond with simple solutions like electric fans and hydration. Additionally, students can learn about urban climate policy solutions. As they play, students learn that parks, reflective surfaces, and shade structures can reduce temperatures.
Through our collaboration, we developed two games—Heat Wave Survival and Power Grid Hero—and launched a Build Challenge! The games and challenge help students take actionable steps both in game and in real-life to respond to rising temperatures.
Clinical Guidance
Heat Health for Healthcare Professionals
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | 2024
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has developed a new clinical guidance to help healthcare professionals keep at-risk individuals safe when temperatures rise.
Dashboard
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | 2024
This consumer-friendly product, integrates the HeatRisk Forecast Tool data with other information, including details on local air quality, to inform the public on how best to protect themselves when outdoor temperatures are high and could impact their health.
Forecast Tool
NOAA & CDC | 2024
The NWS HeatRisk is an experimental color-numeric-based index that provides a forecast risk of heat-related impacts to occur over a 24-hour period. HeatRisk takes into consideration:
- How unusual the heat is for the time of the year
- The duration of the heat including both daytime and nighttime temperatures
- If those temperatures pose an elevated risk of heat-related impacts based on data from the CDC
This index is supplementary to official NWS heat products and is meant to provide risk guidance for those decision makers and heat-sensitive populations who need to take actions at levels that may be below current NWS heat product levels.
Interactive Map
Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) & World Meteorological Organization (WMO) | 2024
This is an interactive map that shows key climate events reported in the European State of the Climate 2023. The State of the Climate in Europe 2023 offers a regional perspective of climate variability and its impacts on the European continent.
Dashboard
NEMSIS, OASH & NHTSA | 2024
The goal of the Heat-Related EMS Activation Surveillance Dashboard is to track heat-related events in the pre-hospital setting using nationally submitted Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data. The dashboard contains one interactive page with a geo-surveillance view and a second page which displays patient characteristics.
The data set for this dashboard includes all deduplicated EMS patient care reports (PCRs) for a rolling time period that meet the following inclusion criteria for a heat-related event in the pre-hospital setting. In 2023, there are 50 states and 3 territories (Virgin Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands), and the District of Colombia, submitting data to the national database.
Based on estimates provided by state EMS authorities, the NEMSIS Technical Assistance Center (TAC) collects data from approximately 95% of all EMS agencies in the U.S. that respond to 911 requests for emergency care and transport patients to acute care facilities. The NEMSIS TAC receives records for 75% of all patient contacts that occur on any given day in the U.S., within approximately 10 days. Over 90% of all patient care reports are received within 2 weeks of patient contact.
Research Hub
London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) | 2024
CLIMACH is a research interest group that brings together researchers from across the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) with expertise in climate change and maternal and child health. CLIMACH is also a forum for collaboration which aims to: develop an environment for knowledge exchange, leverage research impacts across the School and support and maintain expertise in climate and maternal health research. By building a collective base of knowledge and expertise, the group strives to accelerate research across LSHTM, and beyond, to tackle the urgent challenges of the climate crisis and make a difference in the health of women and children in a changing climate.
Research Hub
UNICEF
The mission of the Collaborative is to mobilize international action to protect child health and development from the impact of climate change and environmental degradation.
The Collaborative is a multi-stakeholder initiative established in 2023 that provides a shared vision, identity and platform to amplify the work of its partners to protect children’s environmental health. Partners of the Children’s Environmental Health Collaborative are united around a common vision – that all children deserve to grow up in a clean, healthy and sustainable environment – and believe that working together will help get there faster.
The Collaborative draws from existing global frameworks and partner resources to support and galvanize collective action. The Collaborative is not a separate legal entity, it does not develop intergovernmental policy, and is not a financing mechanism.
Tool
CRD & British Columbia Goverment | 2024
The Extreme Heat Information Portal hosts information and maps that will help residents and municipal planners explore and understand the capital region’s vulnerability and exposure to extreme heat.
The interactive Regional Heat Map highlights areas vulnerable to extreme heat. Explore temperature maps from the 2021 extreme heat event and investigate how the people and buildings are in your community may be affected by extreme heat.
Interactive Web
Copernicus | 2024
Climate Pulse is a new interactive web application developed and maintained by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) to make climate monitoring more accessible to a broad audience. This page provides daily charts and maps of global surface air temperature and sea surface temperature updated close to real-time, as well as an archive of past daily, monthly and annual maps.
The graphics displayed here are based on data from the ERA5 climate reanalysis, a global dataset produced for C3S by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). More information about the data and methodology can be found in the FAQs.
Interactive Atlas
Copernicus | 2024
With the Copernicus Interactive Climate Atlas, users will be able to conduct global and regional in-depth assessments of past trends and future changes in key variables and indices for different periods of time or for different policy-relevant global warming scenarios.
Tool
ARUP | 2023
To help urban planners and city authorities bring down the temperature – the urban heat island effect (UHI) – Arup has developed UHeat. It’s a new digital tool that uses a combination of satellite imagery and open source climate data to analyse huge areas of cities. It’s able to identify the particular buildings, structures and materials that are causing temperatures to rise.
UHeat doesn’t just reveal where UHI hotspots are developing. Our teams translate its analysis into new planning solutions, ones that can reshape a city’s use of land and materials. These include recommendations for nature-based interventions that will bring down the temperature without the need for additional building and structures.
Imagery Layer
Evening air temperature for U.S. cities for use in urban heat island (UHI) mapping
NOAA/CAPA Strategies | 2023
Tutorial
Map and analyze the urban heat island effect
ESRI | 2023
Heat islands are places that experience sustained elevated temperatures compared to surrounding areas, generally occurring in urban spaces with an abundance of impervious surfaces (such as sidewalks, rooftops, and buildings constructed using concrete, asphalt, and metal) and low tree canopy coverage. The dangerous conditions associated with urban heat islands, known as the urban heat island effect, contribute to higher rates of heat-related illnesses and deaths, compromising the health and quality of life of those living in affected communities.
Urban heat islands are also often associated with areas of historic under-investment, and they incur higher rates of energy consumption for cooling, contributing to accelerated resource consumption and emissions that worsen air quality.
In this scenario, you’ll use feature and raster analysis tools to identify where the urban heat island effect impacts districts in Richmond, Virginia, and create a dashboard to monitor conditions throughout the city.
Tool
i-Tree
The i-Tree Research Suite offers peer-reviewed models to analyze the benefits of trees and other landscape attributes and assist in forest advocacy and ecosystem health. Below is a list of tools that are currently available.
Tool
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Extreme heat events have long threatened public health in the United States. The CDC Heat & Health Tracker provides local heat and health information so communities can better prepare for and respond to extreme heat events. Use the search on the right to explore how extreme heat affects your county, populations who are at risk, and response resources.
Teaching tools
Extreme Heat and Community Health
Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) | 2021
This short video clip is part of a longer video series titled How Climate Effects Community Health. This clip focuses on human health risks from extreme heat events caused by increasing global temperatures.
Tool
Eco-Health Relationship Browser
United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) | 2023
This highly informative site explores five different ecosystems and the public health issues that have arisen in each. Students can explore the different ways that ecosystem services impact health conditions by addressing air quality, mitigating heat and water hazards, supporting recreation and physical activity, and enhancing water quality.
Tool
Climate and Health Outlook 2023
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) | 2023
OCCHE and the HHS Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR) launched the Climate and Health Outlook Portal to accompany this Climate and Health Outlook publication series. This new tool features interactive maps with county-level heat, wildfire, and drought forecasts for the current month along with county-level data on individual risk factors that may make people more vulnerable to negative health outcomes from these climate hazards. Policymakers, health care providers, and the public can use the tool to better understand and plan for the health impacts of climate-related hazards in their communities.
Map
Climate Central | 2023
Climate Central analyzed how urban heat island intensity varies within 44 major U.S. cities that together account for nearly one-quarter of the total U.S. population. This analysis calculates the urban heat island (UHI) index for each census tract within a city to estimate how much hotter these areas are due to the characteristics of the built environment.
Maps show urban heat hot spots within each city—whether concentrated in the urban core (e.g., Indianapolis) or sprawling across a vast developed area (e.g., Detroit).
Dataset
Carbonplan / Extreme Heat Repository
CarbonPlan | 2023
This repository contains code to estimate wet-bulb globe temperatures (WBGT) in the shade and in the sun through 2060, developed as part of a collaborative project with The Washington Post. We wrote an explainer article that describes our methods and the resulting dataset, as well as a blog post on the importance of public access and transparency in climate data and services. To support reproducibility and further research, the code here is sufficient to run the entire analysis. The notebooks folder contains 10 Jupyter notebooks that, in sequence, show how we created our dataset, including the inputs and algorithms we used and all the assumptions that we made.
Data Set
NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections (NEX-GDDP-CMIP6)
NASA
The NEX-GDDP-CMIP6 dataset is comprised of global downscaled climate scenarios derived from the General Circulation Model (GCM) runs conducted under the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) and across two of the four “Tier 1” greenhouse gas emissions scenarios known as Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs). The CMIP6 GCM runs were developed in support of the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR6). This dataset includes downscaled projections from ScenarioMIP model runs for which daily scenarios were produced and distributed through the Earth System Grid Federation. The purpose of this dataset is to provide a set of global, high resolution, bias-corrected climate change projections that can be used to evaluate climate change impacts on processes that are sensitive to finer-scale climate gradients and the effects of local topography on climate conditions.
Tree Cover Map
American Forests
Trees are critical urban infrastructure that are essential to public health and well-being. Tree Equity Score was created to help address damaging environmental inequities by prioritizing human-centered investment in areas with the greatest need.
Tree Equity Score measures how well the critical benefits of urban tree canopy are reaching those who need them most. The score establishes an equity-first standard to guide investment in communities living on low incomes, communities of color and all those disproportionately affected by extreme heat, pollution and other environmental hazards.
Data Set
Thermal comfort indices derived from ERA5 reanalysis
European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts | 2020
This dataset provides a complete historical reconstruction for a set of indices representing human thermal stress and discomfort in outdoor conditions. This dataset, also known as ERA5-HEAT (Human thErmAl comforT) represents the current state-of-the-art for bioclimatology data record production.
The dataset is organised around two main variables:
- the mean radiant temperature (MRT)
- the universal thermal climate index (UTCI)
These variables describe how the human body experiences atmospheric conditions, specifically air temperature, humidity, ventilation and radiation.
The dataset is computed using the ERA5 reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF). ERA5 combines model data with observations from across the world to provide a globally complete and consistent description of the Earth’s climate and its evolution in recent decades. ERA5 is regarded as a good proxy for observed atmospheric conditions.
The dataset currently covers 01/01/1940 to near real time and is regularly extended as ERA5 data become available.
The dataset is produced by the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts.
Checklist
NYC Heat Wave Guidance for Service Providers
NYC Health
Heat Wave Guidance for Service Providers Checklist
Web app
Heat-attributable mortality in Spain
This online application calculates daily mortality due to heat in Spain, using methodology is based on the March 2023 paper Heat-attributable Mortality in the Summer of 2022 in Spain The application uses the daily mortality data for Spain from the All-cause Daily Mortality Monitoring System (MoMo) and the average summer temperature (June, July and August) in Spain calculated from the reference stations defined by the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (AEMET).
Resource hub
National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | 2023
The resources listed on this page are intended to help environmental public health professionals improve their understanding of infrastructural and behavioural risk factors that contribute to indoor overheating in Canada, and the strategies that can mitigate these risks. Policy considerations to protect against indoor overheating are also outlined.
Tool
Heat Stress & Exercise Risk Tool
Heat and Health Research Incubator, University of Sydney | 2023
This web tool allows users to select their city or Zip code and an activity such as cycling, walking or distance running to determine the level of risk over the course of the day.
Guide
Health checks during extreme heat events: A guide for doing in-person or remote health checks
National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health | 2022
Extreme heat events affect different people in different ways, and some people are at higher risk of experiencing heat-related illness if they do not have air conditioning. One way to reduce the public health impacts of extreme heat events is to check in regularly with susceptible people to see how they are coping. However, not everyone knows who is at most risk, how to recognize heat-related illness, or what to do in risky situations. This tool from the NCCEH was designed to help support people doing heat checks by providing all they key information and guidance in a 5-page package. This tool has been co-developed with Dr. Glen Kenny and his heat stress research group at the University of Ottawa.
Toolkit and Guidance
Arsht-Rock, EHRA | 2022
The Heat Action Platform is a living, engagement-oriented tool for city officials, practitioners, and financial institutions to find guidance, both existing resources and tailor-made solutions, on reducing the human and economic impacts of extreme heat at the regional or municipal level. The platform offers opportunities to engage with world-leading experts across a diversity of disciplines to plan, fund, implement, and measure heat resilience actions.
The platform was developed by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center and the Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance in collaboration with the UN Environment Programme, the Cool Coalition, RMI, the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, Mission Innovation and the World Economic Forum’s Global Commission on BiodiverCities by 2030.
The platform can support you to:
- Develop a heat action plan or similar planning/goal-setting initiative;
- Create an individual project or policy intervention with heat-risk reduction and preparedness goals;
- Embed heat-risk reduction and preparedness strategies into another plan; or
- Make the case for investments in community heat resilience.
Data and Resource Hub
The ClimateCHIP website has been developed to make it easier for people in any part of the world to access measured climate data, climate impact modeling, statistics and other information at a grid cell level (0.5 x 0.5 degrees).
The ClimateCHIP.org website has global grid cell data (0.5 x 0.5 degrees) on key climate variables for the current period 1980-2021 (TODAY)(CRU data) and the future period up to 2095 (TOMORROW) (ISIMIP3b data for GFDL and UKesm models). The site is user-friendly and allow for downloading of local data for local research and analysis at no cost. The website integrates a Google Earth version, which makes it easy to find specific grid cells anywhere over land around the world. Data from weather stations with high number of daily data (NOAA GSOD) is also included. For further information contact Tord Kjellstrom (kjellstromt@yahoo.com).
Resource hub
Australia BOM
Is a heatwave coming? Learn how to use the heatwave forecast and assessment maps to better prepare for heatwave conditions and their impacts. Find 3-day heatwave assessments and a full range of information in the Heat Knowledge Center including Heatwave Information from State Health Departments
Tool
Center for the Built Environment | 2021
This free, open-source, and user-friendly online tool can assist researchers, building practitioners, and policymakers in better understanding the conditions under which electric fans can be used to cool people safely.
Resource hub
GCF, WMO, WCRP, SMHI
A Climate Information Platform provides access to projections of over a dozen climate change indices for the globe.
Tool
UNSW, WMO, GCF, climate extremes | 2021
Calculate over 70 indices associated with climate impacts, from historical daily temperature and precipitation data
European Climate and Health Observatory
European Climate and Health Observatory
European Commission, European Environment Agency
The European Climate and Health Observatory aims to support Europe in preparing for and adapting to the impacts of climate change on human health by providing access to relevant information and tools, including regional resources on heat and health.
Mobile App
ClimApp: Personalized heat and cold stress warning and advice
Lund University, Sweden
ClimApp is a mobile tool that translates climate service into personalized adaptation strategies to cope with thermal stress including heat and cold stress. ClimApp integrates weather forecast data with human heat balance models, to predict thermal strain experienced by humans. The app works globally in both hot and cold climates, in a temperature range from -50 C to +50 C. The App provides personalized health risk warning and advice for individuals, groups, organizations, public and private sectors, to support decision-making for adaptation strategies, and to improve the quality of life and health when facing thermal climate challenges.
Targeted users: Initial targeted users are outdoor workers, occupational health and safety professionals, caregivers for elderly people and children who are more vulnerable to extreme heat and cold. It can also be used by other sectors/activities such as outdoor and leisure activities, and by the general population.
Features:
1. Personalization: The app takes into account personal factors and vulnerability such as age, body mass index (BMI), activity level (determines human body internal heat production), clothing, acclimatization to heat.
2. Users can input their personal information into the app to provide improved predictions of the impact of weather on health.
3. Users can input different personal factors (e.g. work intensity) to obtain different predictions of the impact on health.
4. The weather forecast data are automatically extracted from local weather forecast through GPS.
5. Users can choose different locations, for example for travel planning.
6. The weather data inputs include not only air temperature, but also humidity, wind speed and solar radiation related mean radiant temperature. ClimApp has incorporated more than 10 relevant variables that affect human heat exchange between the body and the environment.
7. Four scientifically established international standards (ISO 7243 (WBGT), ISO 7933 (PHS), ISO 7730 (PMV), ISO 11079 (IREQ)) of human thermal environments are incorporated.
8. It covers outdoor and indoor as well as hot and cold environments.
Warning System
KMA Impact-based Heat Health Warning System (South Korea)
Republic of Korea National Institute of Meteorological Sciences | 2020
An impact-based heat health warning system was developed by the National Institute of Meteorological Sciences based on 165 counties in South Korea. This system was developed using the daily maximum perceived temperature (PTmax), which is a human physiology-based thermal comfort index, and the Local ENSemble prediction system for the probability forecasts. Also, A risk matrix proposed by the World Meteorological Organization was employed for the impact-based forecasts of this system. The threshold value of the risk matrix was separately set depending on regions. In this system, the risk level was issued as four levels (GREEN, YELLOW, ORANGE, RED) for first, second, and third forecast lead-day (LD1, LD2, and LD3). The daily risk level issued by the system was evaluated using emergency heat-related patients obtained at six cities, including Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu, and Busan, for LD1 to LD3. The high-risks level occurred more consistently in the shorter lead time (LD3 LD1) and the performance (rs) was increased from 0.42 (LD3) to 0.45 (LD1) in all cities. Especially, it showed good performance (rs = 0.51) in July and August, when heat stress is highest in South Korea. From an impact-based forecasting perspective, PTmax is one of the most suitable temperature indicators for issuing the health risk warnings by heat in South Korea.
Database
Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute-KNMI
The KNMI Climate Explorer is a tool to investigate the climate. It is a web-based application for climatic research that is managed by the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI) and contains a comprehensive collection of climatic data sets and analysis tools.
The web application provides the ability to analyze climate data statistically. It contains more than 10 TB of climate data and dozens of analysis tools. It is part of the WMO Regional Climate Centre at KNMI.
Dataset
Multi-country survey of heat-health during COVID-19
ESRC/GCRF project "Cool Infrastructures" | 2020
Multi-country, remote survey to evaluate the interplay between COVID-19 mitigation measures, heat-health and livelihoods for populations living in densely populated urban areas. Survey data available for Pakistan, India, Indonesia and Cameroon. Data collected remotely via mobile phone survey with ~4400 randomly identified respondents. Data available in CSV file format. Data generated as part of the ESRC/GCRF project “Cool Infrastructures: Life with heat in the Off Grid City (ES/T008091/1), with additional funding from the Scottish Funding Council.
Tool
Microclimate and Urban Heat Island Mitigation Decision-Support Tool (UHI-DS)
UNSW Sydney
This project provides governments and built environment industries with a decision-support tool to inform urban policy, development assessment and planning practices related to potential building and urban interventions, used to cool streetscapes and cities, decrease energy consumption, protect the population’s vulnerable health-wise, and improve conditions of comfort.
Tool
How Much Hotter Is Your Hometown Than When You Were Born?
New York Times
As the world warms because of human-induced climate change, most of us can expect to see more days when temperatures hit 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit) or higher. See how your hometown has changed so far and how much hotter it may get.
Maps
ECMWF | 2019 - current
We produce surface air temperature maps as a data product, but you can also view the data directly.
From April 2019 onward, the temperature summaries are based on ERA5. You can read more on the ‘Climate Bulletin – About the data page‘.
Up until March 2019, the temperature summaries were based on ERA-Interim, which can be accessed via the ECMWF website. You can read more information about these summaries on our surface air temperature analysis page.
Dataset
Thermal comfort indices derived from ERA5 reanalysis
ECMWF | 1979 - current
This dataset provides a complete historical reconstruction for a set of indices representing human thermal stress and discomfort in outdoor conditions. This dataset, also known as ERA5-HEAT (Human thErmAl comforT) represents the current state-of-the-art for bioclimatology data record production.
The dataset is organised around two main variables:
- the mean radiant temperature (MRT)
- the universal thermal climate index (UTCI)
These variables describe how the human body experiences atmospheric conditions, specifically air temperature, humidity, ventilation and radiation.
The dataset is computed using the ERA5 reanalysis from the European Centre for Medium-Range Forecasts (ECMWF). ERA5 combines model data with observations from across the world to provide a globally complete and consistent description of the Earth’s climate and its evolution in recent decades. ERA5 is regarded as a good proxy for observed atmospheric conditions.
The dataset currently covers 01/01/1979 to near real time and is regularly extended as ERA5 data become available.
Data Tool
Extreme Heat Days & Warm Nights (California)
Cal-Adapt | 1961-2099
With this tool you can explore how the frequency and timing of extreme heat days and warm nights is expected to change under different emission scenarios. This data is derived from daily climate projections which have been downscaled from global climate models from the CMIP5 archive, using the Localized Constructed Analogs (LOCA) statistical technique developed by Scripps Institution Of Oceanography. LOCA is a statistical downscaling technique that uses past history to add improved fine-scale detail to global climate models.
As the climate changes in California, one of the more serious threats to the public health of Californians will stem primarily from the higher frequency of extreme conditions, principally more frequent, more intense, and longer heat waves. An increase in heat waves may increase the risk of heat stroke and dehydration. Find out how you can become better prepared and more resilient to increasing temperature and extreme heat events at Preparing California for Extreme Heat, a report put together by California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).
Mobile App (IT)
Ministero della Salute e dal Dipartimento di epidemiologia del servizio sanitario della Regione Lazio - ASL Roma 1
The app was created by the Ministry of Health and the Department of Epidemiology of the Lazio Region Health Service – ASL Roma 1. It offers:
- the levels of health risk in each city for the three days of heatwave forecast through a map and a graphical summary of the bulletins for easy reference from portable devices;
- recommendations for prevention aimed at the population and subgroups at greatest risk and links to download guidelines, brochures and information material;
- an interactive map of floors, services and useful local numbers.
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L’App è stata realizzata dal Ministero della Salute e dal Dipartimento di epidemiologia del servizio sanitario della Regione Lazio – ASL Roma 1.
Offre in particolare:
- i livelli di rischio per la salute in ogni città per i tre giorni per cui viene sviluppata la previsione delle ondate di calore attraverso una mappa e una sintesi grafica dei bollettini di facile consultazione dai dispositivi portatili
- le raccomandazioni per la prevenzione rivolte alla popolazione e ai sottogruppi a maggior rischio e link per scaricare Linee guida, brochure e materiale informativo
- una mappa interattiva dei piani, dei servizi e dei numeri utili a livello locale.
Warning System
Harmonized Heat Warning and Information System for Ontario (HWIS)
Environment and Climate Change Canada; Health Canada; Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care; Public Health Ontario
The Heat Warning and Information System (HWIS) is a coordinated provincial system that provides a consistent approach for processing and issuing heat warnings in Ontario, in order to better protect residents, vulnerable community members and visitors during the summer season. It was developed jointly by Environment and Climate Change Canada, Health Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and Public Health Ontario, in consultation with provincial health units.
The HWIS provides criteria for issuing heat warnings. These criteria were selected after an extensive review of epidemiological evidence about the links between temperature, humidity, and health outcomes including mortality and illness.
HOW THE HWIS WORKS
The EOHU receives weather forecasts from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) in advance of issuing a heat warning. Based on ECCC’s heat warning, the Medical Officer of Health may issue a local Heat Warning if conditions are forecasted to last at least 2 days, or an Extended Heat Warning if conditions are forecasted to continue for 3 or more days.
WHAT HAPPENS DURING A HEAT WARNING OR EXTENDED HEAT WARNING?
Once the Medical Officer of Health declares a Heat Warning or Extended Heat Warning, notification of key response partners, community agencies and the public is initiated. Hot weather response activities focus on protecting vulnerable groups at increased risk for heat-related illness.
Dataset
Heat and Cold Waves – Long-term records
DWD | 1950-2020
Extreme events such as heat and cold waves are of great importance for life on earth and also cause high economic damage. They also play a major role in the discussion of climate change, as climate model calculations predict a change in frequency, duration and intensity of such events.
In the years 2010 and 2011, there were a number of events in Europe that occurred as extreme temperature and rainfall anomalies. Examples include the cold winter of 2009/2010 and December 2010, particularly in Northern and Western Europe, the severe precipitation events in Eastern Central Europe in May, August and September 2010, the heat wave in Eastern Europe in summer 2010 and the drought in much of Europe in February until May 2011. All these events occurred over relatively large areas and continuously. They therefore had a more or less pronounced effect on the annual mean of the relevant climate elements in 2010, in some cases even on the global average for 2010.
For climate monitoring, it is important to record the characteristics of these events (in particular duration, intensity, spatial extent) in order to be able to compare them with other events and to make reliable assessments of the past and possibly future occurrence of such events.
Appropriate criteria are needed to identify a heat or cold wave. In a climatically heterogeneous area such as Europe, it is a major challenge to find a uniform definition which can be applied to the entire continent. In practice, a number of very different definitions of extreme events are used from country to country, depending on the local climatic conditions and the special user requirements.
For the climatological assessment of a heat / cold wave, it is important to compare current heat and cold waves with earlier corresponding events. Therefore, a representation was chosen which displays not only current, but also historical heat waves and their properties (duration, intensity, spatial extent) on a diagram. Of interest here are above all large-scale heat and cold waves, which extend over several countries within Europe.
This representation was taken over from the French weather service Météo France, which had originally applied it to France. It has been adapted for the area of WMO Region VI, Europe.
Outlooks
Experimental Heat Outlooks - Caribbean
Caribbean Regional Climate Center (CIMH, WMO)
To better prepare for excessive heat, the CariCOF has developed, and is now releasing experimental heat outlooks for the hotter part of the year (i.e. starting in May and up to October/November), containing forecast temperatures and heatwave frequency, as well as implications of the heat climatology and heat forecasts for the next three months.
Tool
Tools and Resources
Protecting Outdoor Workers from Heat Illness
NIHHIS | 2020
Information in this Web app can help outdoor workers and their supervisors understand heat hazards to keep workers safe and productive, and even save lives. In the longer term, the National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) can help decision makers prepare for future extreme heat events.
Tool
Extreme Heat Vulnerability Map Tool
NIHHIS | 2020
Explore future heat events and social vulnerability in the US on this interactive map tool.
Database / Tools
The World Urban Database and Access Portal Tools project is a community-based project to gather a census of cities around the world.
The overall aims of WUDAPT are to:
- use the Local Climate Zone (LCZ) classification framework as the starting point for characterizing cities in a consistent manner
- use Geo-Wiki to sample land cover and land use types across LCZs (e.g. impervious surfaces (buildings, roads, other), pervious surfaces, grassland, etc.)
- develop tools (online and mobile-based) to obtain other parameters such as building materials, building dimensions, canopy widths, etc.
- provide open access to this dataset so that researchers around the world can use the data for many different types of applications, from climate and weather modeling to energy balance studies
- provide basic tools in the portal to allows researchers to aggregate the data to a user-specified reference grid (resolution and starting location) and compare cities around the world.
For WUDAPT to work, we need to build a community of interested urban experts and interested researchers who will take active part by:
- using the training materials to classify your city into LCZs
- contributing your LCZ map to WUDAPT
- helping us to collect other parameters using the online and mobile-based tools that will be developed.
Dataset
This platform displays census-tract level surface urban heat island (SUHI) intensities for US urbanized areas (polygons with red boundaries), as well as socioeconomic information at the same level of aggregation. Use the search bar to find your urbanized area of interest. Click your neighborhood, and the corresponding SUHI and population statistics will be listed below.
The SUHI intensity, as calculated here, is the difference in surface temperature between the built-up and non-built up pixels of an urbanized area. Since these estimates are based on satellite observations, they are valid for clear-sky conditions. More information about the methodology used to generate this dataset can be found in: Chakraborty, T., Hsu, A., Manya, D., & Sheriff, G. (2020). A spatially explicit surface urban heat island database for the United States: Characterization, uncertainties, and possible applications., ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing
Warning System (ES)
Sistema de Alerta Temprana por Olas de Calor y Salud - Argentina
SMN Argentina | 2020
A nivel global, existen evidencias contundentes de los riesgos a la salud frente al exceso de calor o temperaturas muy elevadas. El SAT-OCS anticipa a la población acerca de situaciones meteorológicas extremas y sus posibles efectos en la salud y mortalidad. El objetivo es que tanto la población como los organismos de protección civil puedan tomar las medidas de prevención, mitigación y de respuesta adecuadas a cada nivel de alerta.
Este Sistema se basa en los resultados del proyecto de investigación “Mortalidad por olas de calor en el semestre cálido 2013-2014 en las regiones del centro y norte de la República Argentina. Estudio ecológico”, realizado por un equipo interdisciplinario conformado por profesionales de las ciencias de la salud, de las ciencias sociales y de las ciencias de la atmósfera, entre los cuales se contó con integrantes de Ministerio de Salud de la Nación y del Servicio Meteorológico Nacional. En esta investigación se analizaron y caracterizaron los efectos de las olas de calor del semestre cálido (octubre a marzo) 2013-2014 sobre la mortalidad en la región centro-norte de la Argentina, evidenciando un aumento significativo de la mortalidad bajo ola de calor.
Interactive Map
The Future of Extreme Heat by Congressional District
Union of Concerned Scientists | 2019
This interactive map allows you to download district-specific fact sheets for all 433 Congressional districts in the contiguous United States. (Fact sheets are also available in Spanish.) You can move and zoom the map to your area of interest. Click on any district to access the download link.
You can also learn more about how to use the map and fact sheets, including ways to ensure elected officials and candidates are aware of this information.
Information is drawn from the July 2019 report, Killer Heat in the United States: Climate Choices and the Future of Dangerously Hot Days, which highlights the rapid, widespread increases in extreme heat that are projected to occur over the coming decades due to climate change.
The results highlight the stark choice before us: We can continue on our current path, where we fail to reduce heat-trapping emissions and extreme heat soars. Or we can take bold and rapid action now to reduce emissions and prevent the worst from becoming reality.
Intervention Benefits Calculator
Heat Resilient Cities Benefits Tool
C40 Cities | 2020
The impact of extreme temperatures on health and wellbeing is rising up policy agendas in many cities. The Excel-based Heat Resilient Cities benefits tool has been designed to help city planners and decision-makers to quantify the health, economic and environmental benefits of common urban heat adaptation actions. Cities can use this information to make the case for urban heat adaptation investments, and to prioritise the actions that are likely to have the most positive impact locally.
Users can calculate the benefits brought by specific parks and green infrastructure, water bodies such as rivers and lakes, and cool and vegetative surfaces. The tool can also extrapolate results from these specific investments to calculate the benefits of scaling-up across the whole of the city.
The tool was developed with guidance from cities which participate in the C40 Cool Cities Network, and from urban heat and health impact specialists. It has been piloted with the cities of Medellín and São Paulo – read below for a flavour of the results for both cities, or the case studies for full details.
Access the Heat Resilient Cities benefits tool and calculate benefits for your city’s actions via the Download button on this page. The tool will also soon be available here in Spanish. Instructions for using the tool are given in the first two tabs (Intro and Workflow) of the Excel file. Contact Neuni Farhad and Snigdha Garg with any questions about how to use the tool and interpret the results. You can also learn how the tool was developed in the methodology note.
Database
EM-DAT: The International Disaster Database
CRED
EM-DAT provides an objective basis for vulnerability assessment and rational decision-making in disaster situations. For example, it helps policymakers identify the disaster types that are most common in a given country and that have had significant historical impacts on human populations. In addition to providing information on the human impact of disasters – such as the number of people killed, injured or affected – EM-DAT provides disaster-related economic damage estimates and disaster-specific international aid contributions.
Warning System
UK Met Office
The Heat-Health Watch Service is designed to help healthcare professionals manage through periods of extreme temperature. The service acts as an early warning system forewarning of periods of high temperatures, which may affect the health of the UK public.
The Heat-Health Watch Service operates in England from 1 June to 15 September each year, in association with Public Health England. This is the period when temperature thresholds are most likely to be reached. However, should thresholds for an alert be reached outside of this period, an extraordinary heat-health alert will be issued and stakeholders are advised to take the usual public health actions.
The Met Office forecasts day-time and night-time maximum temperatures, which are monitored regionally. When certain heat thresholds are passed, a warning is issued and sent to relevant health professionals and people working in social care as well as displayed on our website. This enables health professionals to take action to minimise the impact of the heat on people’s health.
Warning System
Heat Health Watch Warning System (France)
Meteo France
Advisories and monitoring of high temperatures occurs in France between June and August. Meteo France coordinates and collaborates with the Ministry of Health to issue warnings about potential heatwaves.
Warning System
Heatwave Service for Australia
Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology
National heatwave monitoring and forecasting service for Australia. Provides monitoring from the past two three day periods and forecasts heatwaves for the next three to five days.
Warning System
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Heat-health warning system for the U.S. Each NWS Forecast Office issues a specific forecast for their region. They also provide a contiguous U.S. forecast map of maximum and minimum temperatures in real-time and maximum heat index forecasts.
Risk Map
The European Environment Agency (EEA)
Online interactive GIS map of the heatwave risk of European cities based on historical data and climate change projections.
Forecasts
EuroHEAT
Medium range heatwave forecasts for Europe for 1-9 day lead times. Forecasts are updated each day and issued for the next 9 days. The forecasts from the past nine days are also available so users can monitor the development of the event.
Warning System
EUMETNET
Provides extreme heat warnings and alerts for Europe. Information is displayed on an interactive map with available reports and warnings that can be downloaded for each country that have high alerts.
Warning System
NOAA Climate Prediction Center
US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Provides forecasts for excessive heat and above normal temperatures for the United States at 3-7 day lead times.
Mobile App
US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
This mobile application lets outdoor workers and supervisors calculate the heat index for their worksite. Based on the heat index, the app indicates the risk level to outdoor workers. Users can get suggestions about actions to take at different risk levels to protect workers from heat-related illness. The app is available for Android and iPhone devices, in English and Spanish.
Knowledge Base
Cool Roofs and Cool Pavements Toolkit
Global Cool Cities Alliance
Repository for cool surface and urban heat island information. The Knowledge Base is a user-friendly tool to find research, program materials, sample documents, presentations, case studies, codes and standards, videos, images and other relevant items from around the world.
Assessment Tool
California Heat Assessment Tool (CHAT)
Four Twenty Seven, California Natural Resources Agency
The California Heat Assessment Tool (CHAT) was developed to help state and local public health officials understand how heat vulnerability will change with increasing temperatures due to climate change. The tool helps users identify heat vulnerable areas based upon changes in high heat days under different climate scenarios and social, health and environmental vulnerability factors. The study defines “Heat Health Events” (HHEs) as heat events that cause negative public health impacts – and the study found that vulnerable groups may be more sensitive to high-heat days by as much as 6 to 8 degrees Fahrenheit as compared to the general population. The tool helps users determine how climate change will affect the severity, duration, and shifts in timing of HHEs under different emissions scenarios.
Mobile App
Predicted Heat Strain Mobile Application
University of Queensland
This freely available application allows investigators to input a number of parameters associated with the environment, task and individual to evaluate the work scenario’s potential risks and controls without requiring access to a computer. Based on the input data, the app uses a number of algorithms to produce predicted core body temperature and water loss graphs and reports. It is envisaged that the app will become a useful tool for the practicing occupational health and safety professional in the investigation and control of heat stress in the field.
Knowledge Base
Climate-ADAPT: sharing adaptation information across Europe (EC and EEA):
European Commission, European Environment Agency
Decision-tools
ARTi Analytics
EXTREMA Global is a suite of services to help Cities become resilient to heat. Any new City in the World can be integrated within days. Each city can choose the suite of services to implement with many customizations including native language.
EXTREMA Global brings together all information and services to survive the heat. It provides tools to City authorities for long term planning, seasonal preparedness and day-to-day management during heatwaves. All available and updated information about cooling spaces is fed to citizens and visitors via EXTREMA Global multilingual mobile app, including temperature reading and heat risk at user’s location, nearest cooling spaces and drinking water spots, multiple user profiles, city messages, as well as cool routes and cooling spaces rating add-ons.
Furthermore, the Service Portfolio includes Dashboard for the Authorities, High resolution maps of city hot spots, and Planning and analytics tools.
Data Explorer
Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change data explorer
Lancet
This platform allows users to engage with our findings and explore the 2019 report data at country specific, regional and income group level. The data visualisations are free to use and share
Data Explorer
European Environment Agency (EEA)
The maps and data show the median of the number of heat waves in a multi-model ensemble of the near future (2020–2052) and the latter half of the century (2068–2100) under the RCP4.5 scenario, and for the same time periods but under RCP8.5
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