This World Health Organization document evaluates the potential of climate-based disease early warning as a means of improving preparedness for, and response to, epidemics. The authors develop a conceptual framework for constructing and evaluating a climate-based early warning system (EWS). The report highlights that many of the most important infectious diseases, and particularly those transmitted by insects, are highly sensitive to climate variations. However, the published literature includes no full descriptions of climate-based EWS being used to influence disease control decisions.
According to this website, the fire danger indicators currently presented in this report are components of the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) System. The Global EWS provides 1-7 day forecasted FWI System data based on the National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Global Forecast System. The FWI System components are currently calibrated to commonly used threshold values that identify low to extreme conditions.
