Physical Drivers, Impacts and Risk Reduction

Location: PCL054 In person and on line. Register Here

Time and Date: Tuesday 3rd November 2026, 10.30-12.00

Speaker: Professor Glenn Mcgregor

Summary: Heatwaves are among the most consequential climate-related hazards, posing growing challenges for human health, infrastructure, economies and environmental systems. Drawing on material in the book Heatwaves: Causes, Consequences and Responses this lecture examines heatwaves through an integrated disaster risk framework, exploring how physical hazard characteristics interact with exposure, vulnerability and societal capacity to produce adverse outcomes.

The lecture begins by considering how heatwaves are defined and measured, including their frequency, intensity, duration, spatial extent and cumulative thermal burden. It examines the atmospheric processes responsible for extreme heat, including persistent circulation patterns, subsidence and land–atmosphere feedbacks, alongside the role of urban environments in modifying local temperatures and human thermal exposure. 

The diverse consequences of heatwaves are then considered, drawing on international examples to illustrate excess mortality, heat-related illness, economic disruption and cascading impacts across interconnected infrastructure systems. The uneven distribution of heatwave risk is explored through the influence of demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and institutional vulnerability.

Finally, the lecture evaluates approaches to heatwave risk reduction, including heat-health warning systems, urban cooling interventions, public-health preparedness and governance arrangements. 

Throughout, heatwaves are presented not simply as extreme meteorological events, but as complex and potentially systemic risks whose consequences depend on interactions between physical processes, social conditions and decisions about risk management.

Reading:

Barriopedro, D., García‐Herrera, R., Ordóñez, C., Miralles, D.G. and Salcedo‐Sanz, S., 2023. Heat waves: Physical understanding and scientific challenges. Reviews of Geophysics, 61(2), p.e2022RG000780.

Hess, J. Errett, N., McGregor, G., Isaksen, T., Wettstein, Z., Wheat, S., Ebi, K. (2023) Public health preparedness for extreme heat events. Annual Reviews: Public Health, 44:301-321. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071421-025508

McGregor, GR., Bone, A. and Pappenberger, F. (2017) Meteorological risk: extreme temperatures, In: Poljanšek, K., Marin Ferrer, M., De Groeve, T., Clark, I., (Eds.), (2017) Science for disaster risk management 2017: knowing better and losing less. EUR 28034 EN, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg, doi:10.2788/842809, JRC102482. 257 – 270.

McGregor, GR. & Vanos, J.K. (2018) Heat: A Primer for Public Health Researchers. Public Health. 161:138-146

McGregor, G., 2024. Heatwaves. In Heatwaves: Causes, Consequences and Responses (pp. 3-28). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

McGregor, G. and Suzuki‐Parker, A., 2026. Heatwave Characteristics and Trends Across Eight Japanese Cities. International Journal of Climatology, 46(7), p.e70361.

Wolf T, McGregor GR., Analitis A. (2014) Performance assessment of a heat vulnerability index for greater London, United Kingdom. Weather, Climate, and Society.6:32-46.