Heat-Health Warnings: Bridging the Gap between Heat Forecasts and Efficient Warning Systems

Dear Colleagues,

Environmental conditions inevitably affect human health and biodiversity. Hot conditions cause human discomfort and heat-induced illnesses, and they are significantly associated with the mortality of more susceptible population subgroups. These effects intensify under hot and humid environments. The continuous increase of air surface temperature and especially record-breaking heat waves such as those in summers 2003 and 2010 in Europe has motivated the rapid development of adaptation strategies, such as the improvement of heat–health warning systems. Such warning systems attempt to protect the population against environmental heat by means of a whole chain of various components: the meteorological forecast system, the metric(s) used to quantify heat conditions, the thresholds triggering the warnings, the implementation of intervention strategies, the communication of the warnings, and the evaluation and periodical revision of the whole system. The final aim of these elements is to take timely and effective actions based on a robust and reliable system, which is essential today in the era of meteorological and climate services. The Special Issue aims at covering the state-of-the-art in both the monitoring and forecasting of heat warnings as well as the development of effective and well-coordinated operative warning systems. Different time scales (i.e., from short- to mid- and long-range forecasts) pose different needs and challenges to the abovementioned components of heat–heath warning systems. Thus, contributions and reviews focusing on heat–health warnings for the general public as well as user-tailored warnings (e.g., occupational exposures) and considering a variety of time scales are welcome.

This Special Issue will provide readers with up-to-date information on heat–health warning systems, linking perspectives from heat forecasts to improved prevention and adaptation measures.

Dr. Ana Casanueva
Dr. Marco Morabito
Mrs. Annkatrin Burgstall
Guest Editors

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