Google has long been providing assistance during severe weather events through various initiatives, including tracking wildfires, sending out flood alerts, and pushing earthquake and hurricane warnings to mobile devices. In addition to these mundane data points, heatwaves will soon be one of the prominent pieces of information showing up in Google Search results.
This means that searching for questions about hot weather or extreme heat events will not only return a series of alarming news articles about the subject, but will also provide a real-time warning about when and where a heatwave is likely to occur. The alert will display a forecast of when the heat event will start and an approximate timeframe for how long it might last. These warnings will become publicly available over the next few months.
Google notes in a blog post announcing the new feature that nearly half a million people die from exposure to extreme heat every year, and that figure continues to rise. To help users protect themselves from potential harm, these alerts will include tips on how to stay cool alongside information about heat-related health concerns that they need to keep an eye out for.
The search giant will display all of this information prominently in search results. Google has also ensured the accuracy of these alerts through a collaboration with the Global Heat Health Information Network.
Google's civic-minded efforts began in 2017 with the launch of SOS alerts, which directed people to authoritative sources of information during natural disasters. Since then, the Mountain View-based tech behemoth has moved onto other forms of crisis initiatives, such as predicting where floods might take place.
In addition to heat alerts, Google is simultaneously expanding the Tree Canopy program it unveiled in 2021, which uses aerial imagery and advanced AI features to identify locations in a city with insufficient tree cover. This initiative should help urban planners pinpoint heat islands, where the temperature is much hotter than neighboring areas. Tree Canopy will now cover nearly 350 cities globally, with Atlanta, Baltimore, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Mexico City, Paris, Sydney, and Toronto joining the list.
With global temperatures continuing to rise, the new heat alerts should be useful to almost everyone.