Blog image credit: Josh Bean from Unsplash.
With the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, and New England experiencing extreme heat events, CDC resources can support you in making sure your communities “Stay Cool, Stay Hydrated, and Stay Informed.”
While anyone can be affected, it is particularly important that we take steps protect disproportionately affected groups from extreme heat. This link provides information on how to protect groups at higher risk of heat-related illness. CDC also has materials to help identify signs and symptoms of heat-related illness.
Using CDC’s newest version of the Heat & Health Tracker, public health officials can now explore the heat wave forecast for your county and track weekly cases of heat-related illness across the country.
- Heat Wave Forecast: The Heat & Health Tracker now has monthly heat wave forecasts, providing county-level information on the number of days expected to exceed a dangerous level of heat in the next month, number of heat waves, average length of heat waves, and average day time and night time temperatures during a heat wave.
- Heat-Related Illness: The Heat & Health Tracker now displays weekly rates of emergency department visits for heat-related illness per 100,000 people by region using data available through the National Syndromic Surveillance Program.
Users can also search for heat and health by county or zip code, create custom maps, view data snapshots, and access CDC guidance and resources.
CDC also has a suite of infographics, linked below, that can be displayed in public areas to educate local communities about recognizing, preventing, and treating heat-related illness. These infographics can be distributed digitally via social media and other platforms.
- https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/socialmedia/graphics/default.htm#extreme_heat
- https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/infographics/beattheheat.htm
- https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/multimedia/weather_infographics.html
- https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/multimedia/infographics/climate_change_extreme_heat.html
As everyone knows, heat-related illness is preventable, but only when people can identify risk factors, signs of illness, and how to treat those who become ill. Hopefully, local health departments will find these resources useful during these unprecedented extreme heat events!