Improving Heat Preparedness in Wisconsin through a Health-Based Warning System

Speakers: Elizabeth Berg, PhD Candidate, Environment and Resources, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW–Madison; Sara Pabich, Master of Public Affairs and Public Health Student, UW–Madison; Becky Rose, PhD Candidate, Environment and Resources, Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies, UW–Madison

An emerging synoptic heat warning system that is based upon health outcomes rather than meteorological data alone has been applied to Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin in a pilot study. This warning system aims to better prepare the cities to act and save lives during dangerous heat waves by better communicating their relative risks through different categories. We monitored this warning system in real time over summer 2022 and performed a retrospective analysis to see how its calls agreed or disagreed with calls from the National Weather Service and where the source of disagreement may be. In this talk, we discuss how this warning system was built, how well it performed this past summer, and how it can be improved and more widely used in the future.