The Interplay of Weather, Health, and Vulnerability: Physical and Psychological Perspectives

We all know that weather affects health in the short-term (e.g., tornadoes and downbursts can be both deadly and high-stress), and that some impacts extend into the longer term (e.g., heat waves, cold waves, and seasonal affective disorder). But there are also even longer-term impacts including, but not limited to, Sun exposure and subsequent skin diseases (e.g., skin cancer), heart attacks from shoveling snow (which may also cause immediate death), injuries from slipping on ice, automobile and accidents related to weather, and eye sensitivities that can lead to loss of vision due to exposure to bright sunlight.

Any weather situation can target specific economic, social, and other racial groups based upon where people live. For example, Katrina's impact to New Orleans disproportionately affected minority communities; the northern California Camp Fire affected more affluent communities with a comparable vengeance.

Possibly the biggest impacts, which may not be well addressed, involve the people (individually, families, and other public groups - and even forecasters, including broadcasters) who are psychologically impacted by weather disasters. And, while anyone may be affected by weather in a psychological sense, with both short and long-term detriments to health, there are certain populations (e.g. those with cognitive and physical disabilities, and/or who are deaf, blind, homeless, or disadvantaged socioeconomically, among others) who are especially at-risk. In the aftermath of any devastating weather event, people often bear their burden alone. and/or with their immediate family and/or community. That's because disaster assistance, including insurance payments and even possible trauma counseling, occurs over a relatively short time period. Thereafter, legal and insurance battling more often than not continues, Federal and state aid often becomes entangled in bureaucratic and budgetary battles, and new crises mask the ongoing disaster (which may still be very immediate to the impacted persons/communities), allowing it and its potential longer-term impacts to quickly fade into the background (both in the media and in political circles).

We're not saying that the meteorological community needs to take on a longer-term disaster recovery burden, but that weather professionals (especially broadcasters) should be aware of potential negative outcomes that may come into play over longer time periods for various populations and possibly provide advice and counsel to their news team about these.