What is a Heat Wave: A Survey and Literature Synthesis of Heat Wave Definitions across the United States

Keywords: heat wave, climate, extreme, survey
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 11:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 12:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 47

Abstract

Almost all climatological events (e.g. hurricanes, tornadoes, blizzards) have standard definitions related to what triggers the event, how they are measured, and different classes. With hurricanes, the Saffir Simpson scale is used to define the pressure and wind speeds associated. With tornados, the Fujita scale classifies the extreme event based on wind speed and relative damage. While almost all climatological events have standard definitions one of the deadliest does not, heat waves. Over the past decade, heat waves of varying durations and intensities have impacted the vast majority of the globe. These extreme events, which have different durations, intensities, and shape/form, impact human and ecosystem health in ways other extreme climate events do not. Emergency managers are tasked with mitigating the impacts of climate extremes, such as heat waves, across the population. During a small NSF funded workshop with emergency managers, held in Fall 2019, the wide variety of heat wave definitions became clear. The definitions varied in terms of the temperature threshold to define a heat wave, how long such events would last to be deemed a heatwave, and how they impact socioenvironmental conditions. This paper expands upon the themes seen during the aforementioned workshop. Through a nationwide survey of state climatologist and emergency managers we look at how heatwaves are defined, the variables utilized, and how mangers plan accordingly. This study, which ran all of 2020, had more that 330 responses from every state in the U.S.