Guildford, England (Commonwealth Union) – Weather forecasting has played a crucial role for the preparations of preventing possible health hazards and damage to property. Quite often extreme changes in temperatures within the same day can severely impact the health of individuals, hence improved weather predictors could further assist in minimizing this damage.
A report from the University of Surrey has indicated that England’s extreme weather alerts could be further enhanced to lower public health impacts of heatwaves. Despite the fact that the present alerting system is effective in lowering these effects, researchers saw that going more towards an impact-based alert system which has its primary focus on the consequences of extreme weather conditions could allow participants, such as the NHS and local government, to make better informed judgements on the right course of action.
In practice, this will result in bringing about a more precise image of the specific conditions from every area of the country in what they could possibly face when an alert is released. Temperature conditions within a Level 3 alert, can be vital, with wide-ranging effects, and this has to be accurately conveyed so the proper risk assessments can be concluded.
The researchers also stressed that any new changes should be capable of drawing distinctions between changes in types of weather events and provide a clear picture of the impacted geographical regions. “Early warning systems are central to improving the resilience of emergency workers, and they are an important tool that allows us to adapt to a changing climate that features more frequent extreme weather events,” said Dr Tom Roberts, co-author of the study at the University of Surrey.
He further indicated that their study demonstrated that current tools in place work well but improvements can deliver better information to 1st responders and others to reduce the effects of extreme weather occurrences.
