The Bureau of Meteorology [BOM] has released a new national heatwave warning service to help Australians prepare for and lessen the impacts of heatwave events.
According to BOM, heatwaves are Australia’s most dangerous environmental hazard, resulting in more community deaths than bushfires, floods, cyclones, and severe storms combined.
The new heatwave warning service will provide an alert through the BOM Weather app and Bureau website that a heat hazard is forecast within the coming four days.
The release of the warning service follows a successful trial between BOM and partner health and emergency service agencies. The trial showed that the new warning service assisted partner agencies to provide timely information of the health risks of the extreme heat and helped to ensure health departments were better equipped to assist those vulnerable to heatstroke.
The alerts will include heatwave warnings issued by the bureau along with five sets of action statements aligned to heatwave severity, agreed with by partner health and emergency service agencies across Australia.
In the event of a heatwave, heatwave warnings will be issued by the bureau through the BOM Weather app and bureau website, as well as media and social media, with health messages relating to heat provided by state and territory agencies.
A heatwave occurs when the maximum and the minimum temperatures are unusually hot over a three-day period at a location.
This is considered in relation to the local climate and past weather at the location.
Details: www.bom.gov.au
