European news outlets are referring to the recent heat wave in southern Europe as “Caronte”, after the boat in Dante Alighieri’s poem “Inferno”, a name not chosen by the World Meteorological Organization or another official body, but by Antonio Sano. Founded the Italian weather website Il Meteo.
Some climate experts are urging government agencies to start naming heat waves, as they do for hurricanes and tropical storms.
Cathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilience Center, which focuses on climate adaptation, said naming and classifying heat waves based on their severity can raise awareness of the dangers of extreme heat.
“Because heat is silent and invisible, it doesn’t have the telegenic nature of other big weather hazards like floods, hurricanes and fires,” Ms. McLeod said. “People don’t have the awareness they need, and that’s why it’s killing more people than any other climate hazard. It needs PR and branding,” he said.
The founder of Il Meteo, Mr. Sanò started naming heat waves in 2012 as a way to explain heat waves to the public in a simple and memorable way. A devoted reader of classical literature, Mr. Sanò named last week’s heat wave in southern Europe “Cerberus,” after the versatile dog who guards the underworld in Greek mythology.
However, so far, government agencies have no immediate plans to assign names to heat waves.
Naming heat wave events focuses on the wrong issues, the World Meteorological Organization said in a statement on Tuesday. The body, which has a membership of 193 member states and territories, added that assigning names could misdirect public and media attention from more important messages, including who is at risk and how to respond.
A study published last week in the journal Nature Medicine found that more than 61,000 people died from last year’s summer heat waves across Europe.
The United States’ National Weather Service has no plans to name heat waves, according to National Weather Service spokeswoman Susan Buchanan. But it is working on public messaging about the dangers of heat and improving the public’s understanding of its health effects.
According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an average of more than 600 people die from extreme heat each year in the United States. This number is much higher because death from heat stroke is not usually classified.
As heat waves are expected to become more frequent, especially in urban centers, the risk is greater. A major United Nations climate report released in October highlighted new data showing heat waves could affect nearly every child worldwide by 2050. Children face more risks from heat because they have less ability to regulate their body temperature.
