In late June, during London Climate Action week, I experienced the extreme heatwave that closed schools, shut down public transport and led to Britain’s Met Office issuing a Red heat alert warning three days in a row for the first time.

People expressed shock that Britain had faced two heatwaves so early in the year, but it was clear to me that there was more to come. 

The UK is sweltering through the third heatwave of the year, with an Amber alert in place. 

As an Australian heat expert, I’ve watched people underestimate heat again and again. 

While many people might think that our hot country might be far ahead on heat resilience, I’m surprised to see that there are things that the Brits are doing better. 

The UK is far better at sharing public heatwave warnings compared to Australia. I saw Amber and Red warnings, and how heat advice and reminders to drink water were shared at tube stations and public events. 

The Met Office and UK Health Security Agency moved to impact-based warnings in 2023, and the colour system clearly conveys the level of risk. 

In Australia, our heat warnings aren’t fit for purpose. The three categories are “low intensity”, “severe” and “extreme” based on the definition of three or more days of unusually high minimum and maximum temperatures, and the Excess Heat Factor. 

But, the levels of danger and how people should respond are hard to understand, as “severe” and “extreme” don’t indicate a clear difference in danger for most people. 

On top of that, shorter dangerous periods of extreme heat, like when Melbourne reached 43 degrees in January this year, don’t meet the three-day minimum. So the heat-risk warnings were delayed and confusing. 

Our bushfire danger warnings are clear and consistent, but we could learn from........

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