Study: The number of deaths due to heat has doubled in Prague in the past decade
Updates: 10.06.2022 10:45
Released: 10.06.2022, 10:45
Prague – The risk of heat-related deaths in Prague between 2010 and 2019 was almost twice as high as in the previous three decades. While previously an average of 50 deaths per year were recorded, the number has risen to 90 in the past decade, according to research by researchers from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (AS) and the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague (CULS). Results published by the professional magazine Urban Climate, AV representatives said in a press release today. According to scientists, heat waves represent the most risky atmospheric phenomena in Europe in terms of the number of deaths. Their impacts are most noticeable in cities with dense buildings and a small share of greenery.
At the average station, the researchers compared the daily temperatures measured in Prague-Ruzyně between May and September in individual decades, specifically from 1982 to 2019, and their effect on mortality in Prague.
“The frequency and intensity of heat waves in the last decade has been unprecedented,” said research team leader Ales Urban of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences. “While the average summer temperature in the 1980s was 15.3 degrees Celsius, between 2010 and 2019 it was 16.9 degrees Celsius, and the number of days with an average daily temperature of more than 20 degrees Celsius also increased significantly,” the scientist said.
The impact of the hot weather on the death then manifested itself significantly. While the team has experienced an average of 50 heat-related deaths per year in the first 28 years, there have been 90 such deaths per year in the last decade studied. “In relative numbers, this represents the proportion of deaths in relation to one percent of almost two percent of all deaths in the period under review,” added Urban. The record number of heat-related deaths was recorded in 2015, at 250, or more than five percent of all deaths between May and September.
Urban drew attention to the need to adapt cities to warmer periods due to climate change. “For periods of extremely high temperatures, an early warning system for the population should be set up, which coordinates the various components of the integrated rescue system, similar to the floods,” the scientist said. “In countries in southern and western Europe, where similar systems were launched after the hot summer of 2003, we see that it really works,” Urban concluded.
Researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences cooperated with researchers from the Faculty of the Environment of the CULS.