Epidemic asthma events represent a significant risk to emergency services as well as the wider community. In southeastern Australia thunderstorm forecasts are considered important for identifying epidemic asthma risk factors, however the relationship between thunderstorm environments from regional model data and epidemic asthma events has not yet been tested in a systematic way. The analysis found environmental conditions for epidermic asthma events appear to be associated with high atmospheric moisture content, which relates to environments favourable for severe thunderstorms, but also potentially pollen rupturing as suggested by previous studies. The study shows that weather model simulations of thunderstorm conditions can be incorporated into the forecasting process for epidemic asthma in Melbourne, Australia.
Read more: Brown, A., Dowdy, A., & Ebert, E.E. (2022). The relationship between high-presentation asthma days in Melbourne, Australia, and modeled thunderstorm environments. Weather and Forecasting, 37(3), 313-327. doi: https://doi.org/10.1175/WAF-D-21-0109.1