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How the heatwaves affect you depends on a lot of factors beyond your age, gender, and which part of the UK you are staying in.
The intense summer heat affects people differently and is no different than a disaster depending on who you are. Yet another week, and temperatures this summer in England are hovering around the 30-degree mark. England recorded its warmest June and driest July on record this year, and the frequency of these extreme weather events are on the rise, but researchers at Oxford view them as more than just weather events. They think the heatwaves are social disasters in England.
Heat now a concern in England
Traditionally, heat was never a concern in England. Homes were built to stay warm and prevent the heat from escaping. As temperatures have soared in the region, homes are overheating, and over 1,500 people died last year due to excessive heat.
A heatwave is defined as two or more consecutive days of extreme temperatures, above regional norms. If the temperatures are in the top 30 percent of the intensity for the region, it is classified as extreme, and moderate if it falls in the bottom 70 percent.
When Oxford researchers analyzed people’s behaviours during summer heatwaves, they found that the impact of heatwaves is not uniform and impacts some people much more than others.
Why is a heatwave a social disaster?
The researchers used 13 years of travel data from the National Travel Survey to determine how people moved during the
Original Record.
This archived record authored by ‘Ameya Paleja’ at ‘METEORED (Your Weather)’ was recovered from data set:
English