Objective: To investigate reported extreme temperature-related catastrophic events and associated mortality on the European continent including the Russian Federation.
Design: Cross-sectional respecting Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) criteria.
Settings: Data source: Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT).
Participants: Search criteria: location-European continent including Russian Federation, time-years 1988 until 2019 (close of database 12 July 2019), catastrophic events-extreme temperatures.
Primary outcome measures: Numbers of heat waves, cold waves, severe winter conditions and associated number of deaths, overall, and per country and year, respecting STROBE criteria.
Results: The most frequent type of the 243 events recorded in EM-DAT were cold waves (54.7%). However, cold waves and severe winter conditions only accounted for 6460 deaths (4.5%), while heat waves were associated with 137 533 deaths (95.5%). The five most severe heat waves in 2003, 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2015 were associated with a total of 135 089 deaths. The most severe heat waves were geographically distributed over the Russian Federation (2010), as well as France, Italy, Spain and Germany, each in 2003.
Conclusion: Although cold waves are more frequently reported in EM-DAT, heat waves are the major cause for temperature-related deaths. In order to better protect the public, it is important to address resiliency and vulnerability of populations at risk and age groups.
Keywords: accident & emergency medicine; community child health; epidemiology; public health; risk management.
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