Extreme heat impacts on food security in Africa

Extreme hot-humid heat impacts both urban and rural livelihoods, reducing labor output and damaging health. As such, increasing exposure to hot-humid heat may be reducing food security for both rural and urban household in Africa. Yet, due to a lack of fine-resolution meteorological data, we have a poor understanding of where urban and rural exposure to hot-humid heat is impacting food security across the continent’s diverse geographies. To fill this gap, using more than 20,000 geo-located surveys from the Demographic and Health Survey Program, we map how the spatial relationship between household-level food security and heat exposure has varied among rural and urban populations since the 1980s. We document spatial and temporal heterogeneity, identifying areas of concern where dangerously hot-humid heat is increasingly co-impacting both urban and rural food security outcomes. Given that hot-humid heat waves will worsen across much of Africa as we warm our climate, our results add to growing calls for effective extreme heat warning systems, including seasonal forecasts, tailored to reduce the impacts of hot humid-heat for all people, regardless of where they live.