Heatwave guide for cities

The impacts of extreme heat are deadly, on the rise globally and preventable. In recent years, heatwaves have broken temperature records and led to the deaths of thousands of people. The 2003 European heatwave killed more than 70,000 people, and the 2015 heatwave in India reportedly killed over 2,500 people.1 These are likely underestimates since deaths from heatwaves are often not attributed to the heatwave, but to illnesses that are made worse by heat, such as heart disease.