With temperatures creeping into the 90s again this week, county governments are encouraged to take advantage of tools provided by the Centers for Disease Control to help residents prevent heat-related illness.
The toolkit provides information in English and Spanish for helping to protect groups that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
- Older adults (aged 65+)
- Low income residents
- Infants and children
- People with chronic conditions
- Outdoor workers
- Athletes
The CDC has also launched a new version of its Heat & Health Tracker, which now allows public officials to get more local data, including heat wave forecasts by county .
- Heat Wave Forecast: The Heat & Health Tracker now has monthly heat wave forecasts, providing county-level information on the number of days expected to exceed a dangerous level of heat in the next month, number of heat waves, average length of heat waves, and average day time and night time temperatures during a heat wave.
- Heat-Related Illness: The Heat & Health Tracker now displays weekly rates of emergency department visits for heat-related illness per 100,000 people by region using data available through the National Syndromic Surveillance Program.
Users can also search for heat and health by county or zip code, create custom maps, view data snapshots, and access CDC guidance and resources.
