Climate and health in the UK: Thinking across hazards and timescales

Weather and climate variability and trends impact health in a range of different ways. In this work I will cover five hazards, heat/drought, cold, storms/flooding, wildfire, and ‘other’ (e.g. hazards related to infectious diseases). I will give a summary of an expert judgment regarding how much various health outcomes associated with these hazards currently impact the UK population, and how this might change in the future. I will discuss how long exposure needs to be to the hazard before the health outcome is detectable. I will finish with highlighting where there are significant gaps in the literature, and where research groups and funding agencies should focus more, not just in the UK context, but the world. 

 

This work was done through the Met Office academic partnership “temperature and health” group, and involves a group of 50+ experts in climate and/or health.