A Stitch in Time: Improving Public Health Early Warning Systems for Extreme Weather Events

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Abstract
Extreme weather events, particularly floods and heat waves, annually affect millions of people and cause billions of dollars of damage. In 2003, in Europe, Canada, and the United States, floods and storms caused 15 deaths and US$2.97 billion in total damages, and the extended heat wave in Europe caused more than 20,000 excess deaths (1); the impacts in developing countries were substantially larger. There is a growing body of scientific research suggesting that the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events are likely to increase over the coming decades as a consequence of global climate change (2). These events cannot be prevented, but their consequences can be reduced by taking advantage of advances in meteorologic forecasting in the development and implementation of early warning systems that target vulnerable regions and populations.