ln addition to impacts on people’s health, heatwaves have an important impact in other areas of society, such as reduced economic output due to loss of productive working hours and an overload of the power grid resulting in power outages.It is also observed that during a heatwave there are increased hospital admissions, especially within the vulnerable populations (elderly, infants, pregnant women, outdoor workers etc.). Healthcare facilities may have challenges to store medicines sensitive to heat.Nevertheless, preparing for heatwaves should take place throughout the year. The risk of extreme heat is often seasonal.Resulting air pollution can cause respiratory and cardiovascular problems. In turn, wildfires affect weather and the climate by releasing large quantities of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter into the atmosphere. The risk of wildfires increases where there is drought and during high winds. Hotter and drier conditions are drying out ecosystems and therefore increasing the risk of wildfires.Heatwaves and hot weather events are exacerbated by climate change and are expected to become more frequent and more severe in the future, happening also in atypical seasons.Heatwaves typically have a noticeable start and end and tend to particularly affect urban areas.A heatwave is an extended period of unusually high temperatures and can be combined with other factors such as humidity.

Download heat wave