WMO warns about risk of heart attacks, deaths amid intensifying heatwaves

As increasingly intensifying heatwaves have been sweeping through much of Europe, Asia, and parts of the United States, on Tuesday (July 18), the World Meteorological Organization issued a warning about a high risk of deaths due to the extreme weather. The United Nations weather agency also said that such events will only intensify and the world needs to be better prepared for them.

World should prepare for more intense heatwaves: UN

Addressing a press conference, the WMO senior extreme heat advisor, John Nairn said, “These events will continue to grow in intensity, and the world needs to prepare for more intense heatwaves.”

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This comes as countries across the Northern Hemisphere are still reeling from soaring temperatures. “Temperatures in North America, Asia, and across North Africa and the Mediterranean will be above 40 degreeCelsius for a prolonged number of days this week as the heatwave intensifies,” said the WMO.

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The UN weather agency said that it is monitoring to see if the current European record-breaking temperature of 48.8 degreeCelsius, recorded in the Italian region of Sicily in 2021, might be smashed.

“The Mediterranean heatwave is big but nothing like what's been through North Africa,” said Nairn, adding that it’s “developing inEurope at this stage.” He also went on to note how in the short term the recently officially declared El Nino weather pattern, “is only expected to amplify the occurrence and intensity of extreme heat events.”

However, the concerning part is thenumber of simultaneous heatwaves in the Northern Hemisphere which has increased six-fold since the 1980s and not showing any signs of slowing down, said the UN expert.

WMO warns about health risks

According to the WMO official, while we are focusing on the maximum day temperatures, it is the high overnight minimum temperatures that we should be worried about as they have the “biggest health risks”, particularly for vulnerable populations.

“Repeated high night-time temperatures are particularly dangerous for human health because the body is unable to recover from sustained heat,” said Nairn. He added, “This leads to increased cases of heart attacks and death.”

Notably, there is no clear definition of what constitutes a heatwave but the UN weather agency said they are in the midst of coming up with a developing one to “standardise impact forecasts and warnings worldwide”.

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A study publishedon Mondayin the journal Nature Medicine found that Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain saw the highest number of deaths, according to population size, when Europe was hit by the sweltering heatwaves last summer.

It also estimated that more than 61,600 people may have died from heat-related causes across 35 European countries between late May to early September 2022, suggesting that the countries’ heat preparedness efforts fell fatally short. Therefore, the researchers have called for urgent measures.

(With inputs from agencies)

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