Heatwaves' impact on people varies according to their geographical area but, while no standard heatwave definition exists, you can be sure climate change will bring soaring temperatures to a town near you more often and severely.
Queensland University of Technology public health researcher Yan Zhang, from the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation (IHBI), has received a Growing the Smart State PhD Funding and QUT-Chinese Scholarship Council scholarship to investigate the effects of heatwaves on humans.
"The world average temperature is forecasted to rise by between 1.1 to 6.4 degrees by 2100 which means heatwaves will occur more frequently and intensively," Ms Zhang said.
"In terms of public health, heatwaves have to be planned for given that 35,000 people in Europe died in the 2003 summer because nothing like the heatwave they experienced - 40 degrees for several days - had ever been imagined."
Ms Zhang will analyse health data from Australia and China to study the effects of heatwaves on people living in different climates.
"What is considered a heatwave in Darwin where people are acclimatised to hot weather would be vastly different from a heatwave in Melbourne," she said.
"And so my study is looking at data from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns on temperature rises and their duration and other characteristics of heatwaves comparing them with hospital admissions and deaths during the same periods."
Ms Zhang's study will focus on the groups most vulnerable to heatstroke such as elderly people, who are prone to dehydration, babies and toddlers, whose systems are not developed enough to acclimatise quickly to heat, and people who are overweight and obese.
Ms Zhang is part of an eight-member IHBI team researching the health implications of climate change.
She said her study aimed to give a detailed picture of heatwaves' effects so that policy makers could use them to form strategies to prevent and control effects on humans.
"Our health resources are limited so we need to develop a localised definition for each city and develop a model that could be used by other cities to define heatwaves and predict the public health messages that will be needed."
Ms Zhang's study is being conducted in collaboration with the University of Beijing, Australian National University, and the University of Queensland and the Queensland Climate Change Centre of Excellence (QCCCE) within the Office of Climate Change, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Media contact: Niki Widdowson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1841 or n.widdowson@qut.edu.au.
** HIgh res photo of Ms Zhang available for media use.
