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Promoting targeted heat early warning systems for at-risk populations

Nature Climate Change (2025)Cite this article

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Extreme heat poses a growing threat to vulnerable urban populations, and the existing heat early warning system usually operates at population level. Pairing emerging individualized and population early warning systems could directly and meaningfully extend protection to those most in need.

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Fig. 1: Distinctions and characteristics of population and individual heat EWS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Allied Health, Sport and Social Work, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

    Fergus K. O’Connor & Aaron J. E. Bach

  2. School of Medicine and Dentistry, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

    Mehak Oberai, Zhiwei Xu, Shannon Rutherford & Ella Jackman

  3. School of Information and Communication Technology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

    Sebastian Binnewies & Connor Forbes

  4. Department of Epidemiology, T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Robert D. Meade

  5. The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability, Harvard University, Boston, MA, USA

    Robert D. Meade

  6. Department of Social Work, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia

    Steven Baker

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  1. Fergus K. O’Connor
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  2. Mehak Oberai
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  3. Zhiwei Xu
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  4. Sebastian Binnewies
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  8. Ella Jackman
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  9. Connor Forbes
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  10. Aaron J. E. Bach
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aaron J. E. Bach.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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O’Connor, F.K., Oberai, M., Xu, Z. et al. Promoting targeted heat early warning systems for at-risk populations. Nat. Clim. Chang. (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02374-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-025-02374-2

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