Dying of heat
Have this year’s heatwaves really killed 2,700 people? The claim has been made in a paper by Imperial College.
– The figure was arrived at by taking the temperature recordings and modelling the theoretical number of deaths based on past heatwave events. However, actual data on deaths tells a different story. The UK Health Security Agency, which measures recorded deaths against a five-year average, declares there was ‘no signal of high mortality above the baseline’ for the week ending 31 May, the first heatwave this year.
– As for the second heatwave, provisional data shows there were 768 fewer deaths (or 7.4%) than would have been expected from the five-year average. The later figures might yet be revised upwards.
Offender numbers
