According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s Sixth Assessment Report, the rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gases has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, drought, wildfire, cyclones, and heavy precipitation that could cause floods and landslides, and the probability of compound events. Such extreme weather events have a negative impact on human health, including heat-related illnesses, injuries, infectious diseases, chronic non-communicable diseases, and mental health, either directly or indirectly. In 2022, at least five record-breaking heatwaves occurred in Europe, with summer temperatures reaching 47 °C, resulting in over 16,000 excess deaths, while droughts affected 88.9 million people in Africa. Hurricane Ian alone caused damage costing US $ 100 billion in the Americas. Clearly, the impact of extreme weather events on public health is not a distant concern but an imminent and pressing threat.

Currently, most climate change health risk assessments focus on the impact of meteorological factors on health outcomes. Although a substantial body of evidence on the health impact of extreme weather events has been accumulated, the influence of climatic conditions, population vulnerability, socio-economic level, and regional variations necessitates further exploration to assess the health risks of various extreme weather events and to understand future risk trends. Simultaneously, investigating the mechanisms through which extreme weather events affect health can help us better understand the causal relationship between them. Moreover, experience sharing on effective health risk responses to extreme weather events is an important component of inter-regional risk communication, offering valuable insights for policymakers to engage in risk reduction. Therefore, in order to solve the abovementioned issues, it is imperative to further strengthen the research in this domain.

The scope of this Research Topic will cover all aspects related to the impact of extreme weather events on public health. The submitted papers could be original research and review articles (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and scoping reviews) on the related topics. Areas of interest include but are not limited to the following aspects:

• Health risk assessment of extreme weather events (including compound extreme weather events).
• Projection of future health risks from extreme weather events.
• Potential mechanisms of impact of extreme weather events on human health.
• Actual case report and analysis of local extreme weather event.
• Extreme weather event response measures and strategies, and corresponding health benefits assessment.

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Frontiers in Public Health

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