'Everyone is under great threat': Call for cyclone-like categories for heatwaves

Heatwaves cause more deaths in Australia than all other natural hazards combined, so authorities should consider a cyclone-like rating system to help people prepare for hot spells, a risk researcher says.

While the Bureau of Meteorology has developed its own system to rank heatwaves, there's still scope to complement it with ratings similar to those used to warn about cyclone intensity, said Thomas Loridan, a lead scientist with research centre Risk Frontiers.

Dr Loridan said the public generally understood the relative threat posed by a category 1 tropical cyclone compared with a category 4 or 5 severe storm, as well as different levels of fire danger.

"When you hear warnings about tropical cyclones or bushfires, it's scary," he said. "But when you hear a warning for a heatwave over the weekend, you tend to take it a bit more lightly."

Read Peter Hannam’s story in the Melbourne Age - “'Everyone is under great threat': Call for cyclone-like categories for heatwaves.”

Weather and climate-related disasters now dominate trends: U.N.

Starting in 2011, drought-hit northern and eastern
Kenya suffered especially from an
already poor food security situation, worsened
 by high food and fuel prices. 

11 February 2016 – A new analysis issued today by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) shows that 2015 – the hottest year on record – confirmed that weather and climate-related disasters now dominate disaster trends linked to natural hazards.

The analysis found that 98.6 million people were affected by disasters in 2015, and that climate – often aided by a strong El Niño phenomenon – was a factor in 92 per cent of those events. The disasters having the greatest impact were the 32 major droughts recorded throughout the year, which amounted to more than double the 10-year annual average and affected 50.5 million people.

Read the story from the UN News Centre - “New UN report reveals devastating human toll of disasters in'hottest year on record'.”