EDITOR—The editorial by Kovats raises some important issues about public health action in response to severe weather.1 The article states that in July the United Kingdom experienced a more severe heat-wave than in 2003. Although the “average” temperature for July broke all records for any month, the temperatures in 2003 were higher for longer. This distinction is recognised in the heatwave plan for England, where alerts are based on duration as well as on daytime and night-time temperature.

It is obviously very early to be drawing firm conclusions about the impact of the plan, just over two weeks after the last “level …