Australia urged to name heatwaves to combat dangers of extreme temperatures

‘Heat culture’ of Spain helps communities prepare for hot weather events in the same way they plan for the arrival of cyclones

Australia should follow the Spanish city of Seville and start naming its heatwaves as part of measures to help communities cope with the rising risks from extreme temperatures, according to a new report.

Naming heatwaves could be part of enabling a “heat culture” where communities prepare for extreme temperature events in the same way they plan for the arrival of named cyclones, the report said. 

Rob McLeod, policy manager at Australian nonprofit organisation Renew and the report author, travelled to Spain to investigate how cities are coping with the rising risks from heatwaves.

Seville, in the country’s south, began naming heatwaves in 2022 as a way to increase public awareness of the risks from high temperatures.

Between June and August 2023, Seville named four heatwaves – Yago, Xenia, Wenceslao and Vera.

McLeod said: “They were hitting temperatures above 45C for at least three days. Naming heatwaves is about letting people know that this is a serious issue.”

He said Spanish cities were developing a “heat culture” where people understood the steps they needed to take to prepare for heatwaves, such as cooling their homes early in the morning and then using shading, doing outdoor tasks outside the hottest parts of the day, staying hydrated and checking on vulnerable community members.

Naming heatwaves also created accountability around the actions that communities and government agencies needed to take to protect the public at a time when global heating was increasing the threat, McLeod said.

City planners in Spain were also working to reduce the urban heat island effect – a phenomenon where impermeable hard surfaces like concrete and brick can store and reflect heat, exacerbating temperature extremes.

Other steps being taken in Spain include a program to retrofit homes to make them cooler and setting up “cooling centres” alongside health teams during extreme events.

“Heatwaves have killed more people in Australia than any other natural hazard,” McLeod said.

The Bureau of Meteorology already has a warning system for severe and extreme heatwaves – defined as periods of at least three days with daytime and night-time temperatures well above what would be expected for a region for that time of year.

Heatwaves have already increased in intensity, frequency and duration in Australia, with projections suggesting this trend will continue as the planet continues to warm from the burning of fossil fuels.

Dr Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climate scientist and heatwave expert at UNSW Canberra, said the idea to name heatwaves had merit.

“Like Spain, we have a similarly extreme climate. To put a naming system around a heatwave tells people these events are real and can be damaging. We already do that with cyclones.”

McLeod said Australia also suffered from inequality when it came to people most affected by heatwaves, with poorer households disproportionately affected by heatwaves with less money to spend on air-conditioning or insulation.

“Addressing energy poverty and vulnerability to extreme heat should be central to Australia’s climate adaptation policy,” he said.

Without “sustained and ambitious policies” to make communities more resilient to extreme heat, he said the challenge “will get even harder”.

McLeod won the 2023 Gill Owen Scholarship to travel to Spain. The report is co-published by Energy Consumers Australia, an advocacy group for energy use for households and small businesses.

Cover photo: Heatwaves have already increased in intensity, frequency and duration in Australia and the trend is projected to continue due to the climate crisis. Photograph: Darren England/AAP