{"id":17071,"date":"2025-07-11T16:14:59","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?p=17071"},"modified":"2025-07-11T16:27:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T16:27:18","slug":"give-the-next-heatwave-a-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/","title":{"rendered":"Give the next heatwave a name?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Climate change has added an extra month of extreme heat<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0to the calendar according to a recent global review<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The report, which spanned Earth’s hottest year on record, showed that from May 2024 to May 2025 nearly 4 billion people endured 30 days of temperatures hotter than those experienced 90% of the time between 1991 and 2020.<\/p>\n

When heatwaves are forecast, it can be difficult to get people to take warnings seriously \u2013 especially in temperate climates like the stereotypically grey UK. As the unrestrained burning of fossil fuels heats the climate and makes heatwaves more severe and common, we need better ways to communicate the risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here’s one idea: give the next heatwave a name.<\/p>\n

‘We all had a wonderful summer and survived’<\/h3>\n

Stephanie Brown is a historian at the University of Hull. While scrolling through social media, she saw a black-and-white photograph of a young woman in a fountain.<\/p>\n

“The caption read ‘On this day in 1976, the British heatwave started. It would last until the 27th August, during which time Britain would experience extreme temperatures<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and widespread droughts. And we all had a wonderful summer and survived,’ she says.<\/p>\n

Lots of people did not survive Britain’s 1976 heatwave. At its peak, the death rate across Greater London rose by a third<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“But the implication of the meme was clear: if people managed back then, surely today\u2019s warnings about heatwaves, climate change and public health are exaggerated,” Brown says.<\/p>\n

It’s easy to see how this misconception can spread. Heatwaves are “silent killers” according to Joyce Kimutai, a climate scientist at Imperial College London. Unlike floods and storms, they cause serious harm without dramatic visual evidence.<\/p>\n

Yet a heatwave in August 2003 is thought to have killed more than 15,000 people over a single fortnight in France. And researchers who studied the pattern of deaths found that heatwave victims are usually not already at the point of death<\/strong><\/a>. In other words, they are not people who would have died anyway, within a few days or weeks.<\/p>\n

What did appear significant in explaining the number of excess deaths were nighttime temperatures says Robert Dingwall, a professor of medical sociology at Nottingham Trent University.<\/p>\n

“People can tolerate heat during the day provided that they can get sufficient respite at night. The tipping point seems to be three successive nights when the ambient temperature is above 20\u00b0C,” he says.<\/p>\n

Globally, nights are getting hotter<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0at a faster rate than days. University of Reading meteorologist Stephen Burt says that, in future, some parts of the world could see nights in which temperatures remain above 25\u00b0C during hot weather.<\/p>\n

“At present, a daytime temperature of 25\u00b0C is the definition of a hot day,” he says.<\/p>\n

Speak of the devil<\/h3>\n

Heatwaves have only become more deadly in the last 50 years. The 1976 heatwave was an anomaly, Brown points out: a hot summer in a relatively cool decade. More recent heatwaves have broken assumptions about just how high the mercury can get.<\/p>\n

“Temperatures reached over 40\u00b0C in 2022<\/a>, while the maximum in 1976 was 4\u00b0C-5\u00b0C cooler,” Brown says.<\/p>\n

One way to get people to take notice of an impending extreme heat event could be to name it. This idea has long been applied to storms: North Atlantic hurricanes have been formally christened by meteorologists since<\/a>\u00a0at least the second world war. The UK adopted the convention for storms in 2015.<\/p>\n

Writing two years later about Storm Doris (not the most intimidating moniker, granted), Newcastle University hydrologist Elizabeth Lewis explained the thinking.<\/p>\n

“The idea is that giving storms human names<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0makes them easy to remember and talk about, meaning people are more aware and prepared when they hit \u2013 certainly more prepared than if faced by a generic ‘high wind forecast’,” she says.<\/p>\n

“Italy has a longstanding but unofficial tradition of naming heatwaves according to mythology and classical history,” says Andrea Taylor, an associate professor in risk communication at the University of Leeds.<\/p>\n

These include Lucifero or Lucifer, another name for the devil, and Cerbero (after Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the underworld in Greek myth). Taylor tested these names alongside the less threatening “Arnold” for two groups, each composed of nearly 2,000 people in England and Italy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The online experiment failed to find any difference between how people perceived the risk of a heatwave, when it was named or unnamed, in either country. In fact, some participants thought naming a heatwave Lucifer<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0sensationalised the weather.<\/p>\n

“This might have the opposite effect, and make people less likely to heed safety messaging about severe heat,” Taylor says.<\/p>\n

We’re not your parents. But we at The Conversation do want you to stay safe this summer. If you feel yourself getting uncomfortably hot<\/strong><\/a>, we recommend the advice of Chloe Brimicombe, an expert in health and the climate at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine: have a lukewarm shower or bath \u2013 avoid a soak in freezing cold water \u2013 and drink plenty of fluids.<\/p>\n

Check on older and vulnerable neighbours, Taylor adds, and help local wildlife<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0by leaving dishes of fresh water outside (if you add pebbles then bees and other insects can drink without drowning).<\/p>\n

And, in the long term, we should do what Kimutai says:<\/p>\n

“To prevent extreme heat events from getting much worse in future, the only solution is for the world to stop using planet-heating fossil fuels as soon as possible.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

……..<\/p>\n

From the Imagine newsletter published on Wednesdays by The Conversation\u00a0<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Thumbnail image a MetOffice map of July 2025 heatwave<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One hot summer day might be a treat in Scotland but prolonged heat is a different story. “To prevent extreme heat events from getting much worse in future, the only solution is for the world to stop using planet-heating fossil fuels as soon as possible.”\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":450,"featured_media":17075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[412,196],"tags":[683,684],"class_list":["post-17071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-crisis-2","category-environment","tag-heatwave","tag-weatherforecast"],"yoast_head":"\nGive the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Give the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One hot summer day might be a treat in Scotland but prolonged heat is a different story. "To prevent extreme heat events from getting much worse in future, the only solution is for the world to stop using planet-heating fossil fuels as soon as possible."\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sceptical Scot Staging Site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-07-11T16:14:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-11T16:27:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"680\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jack Marley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jack Marley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/\",\"name\":\"Give the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-11T16:14:59+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-11T16:27:18+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/941c82c3af62ee5d43581bc69458f5a0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg\",\"width\":680,\"height\":680,\"caption\":\"Met Office map of July 2025 heatwave\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Give the next heatwave a name?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/\",\"name\":\"Sceptical Scot Staging Site\",\"description\":\"Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/941c82c3af62ee5d43581bc69458f5a0\",\"name\":\"Jack Marley\",\"description\":\"Jack Marley is Environment commissioning editor of The Conversation\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/author\/jack-marley\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Give the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Give the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site","og_description":"One hot summer day might be a treat in Scotland but prolonged heat is a different story. \"To prevent extreme heat events from getting much worse in future, the only solution is for the world to stop using planet-heating fossil fuels as soon as possible.\"\u00a0","og_url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/","og_site_name":"Sceptical Scot Staging Site","article_published_time":"2025-07-11T16:14:59+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-11T16:27:18+00:00","og_image":[{"width":680,"height":680,"url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jack Marley","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jack Marley","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/","url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/","name":"Give the next heatwave a name? - Sceptical Scot Staging Site","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg","datePublished":"2025-07-11T16:14:59+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-11T16:27:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/941c82c3af62ee5d43581bc69458f5a0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg","width":680,"height":680,"caption":"Met Office map of July 2025 heatwave"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/2025\/07\/give-the-next-heatwave-a-name\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Give the next heatwave a name?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/","name":"Sceptical Scot Staging Site","description":"Asking Questions. Seeking Answers.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/#\/schema\/person\/941c82c3af62ee5d43581bc69458f5a0","name":"Jack Marley","description":"Jack Marley is Environment commissioning editor of The Conversation","url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/author\/jack-marley\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/GvlD-pOWIAAIJfT.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sceptical.scot\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}