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Rise in Heat Related Mortality in the United States

Rise in Heat Related Mortality in the United States

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

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Authors

Anuska Narayanan , David Keellings 

Abstract

Over the past century, extreme heat events (EHE) have become more frequent and intense, resulting in significant health impacts and economic challenges worldwide. In the United States, extreme heat is the leading weather-related cause of death, claiming more lives annually than hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes combined. However, the characteristics of EHEs can vary significantly between events and over time, with some events perceived as more severe producing vastly different health and societal outcomes and these factors are largely understudied. In this paper, we explore regional trends in heat severity and mortality rates across the conte...  more

DOI

https://doi.org/10.31223/X5114K

Subjects

Geography

Keywords

extreme heat, human health, climate change, Heat Wave, heatwave, United States

Dates

Published: 2025-04-20 17:16

Last Updated: 2025-04-20 17:16

License

CC BY Attribution 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Data Availability (Reason not available):
The data and code used in this study are openly available to facilitate transparency, reproducibility, and further research. The underlying datasets, including climate, heatwave severity, and mortality data, have been sourced from publicly accessible datasets and government agencies. Specifically, meteorological data to calculate heat severity were obtained from the Parameter-elevation Regressions on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM available at https://prism.oregonstate.edu/) while heat mortality data were accessed through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) WONDER database (https://wonder.cdc.gov/).

Conflict of interest statement:
No