2 Apr 2024

A tool to calculate how a warmer world impacts on health

From Nine To Noon, 9:25 am on 2 April 2024
heatwave australia

Australia, cooking in a heatwave. Photo: supplied

With temperatures soaring in parts of Australia this past summer a device is being trialed to help calculate the health risk intense heat poses to the human body.

So far this year the mercury has at times exceeded 40 degrees celsius in the Pilbarra region of Western Australia and in parts of the Northern Territory. And on 25th of January 49.4 degrees was recorded at Birdsville in Queensland.

Professor Ollie Jay is the director of the University of Sydney's Heat and Health Research Incubator and he says people's health is at risk from heatwaves which are intensifying globally. His team is trialing a HeatWatch webtool.