Study highlights regions most susceptible to harm due to heatwaves

A new study has highlighted under-prepared regions across the world most at risk of the devastating effects of scorching temperatures.

The research, led by University of Bristol, UK, showed that unprecedented heat extremes combined with socioeconomic vulnerability puts certain regions, such as Afghanistan, Papua New Guinea, and Central America, most in peril. It is published in the journal Nature Communications.

In this study, the researchers used extreme value statistics - a method to estimate the return periods of rare events - and large datasets from climate models and observations to pinpoint regions globally where temperature records are most likely to be broken soonest and the communities consequently in greatest danger of experiencing extreme heat.

The researchers also cautioned that statistically implausible extremes, when current records are broken by margins that seemed impossible until they occurred, could happen anywhere.

These unlikely events were found to have transpi