Google wants to let you know when there is an extreme heat event in your area.
In a blog post, the company announced that it is bringing extreme heat alerts to Google Search. Google says that extreme heat events kill about 500,000 people every year and that search for extreme heat reached a peak in July 2022. The company hopes that, by surfacing alerts when people search, they will take the proper precautions when they are in an impacted area.
Google says that the alerts will be rolling out “in the coming months,” and when users search for extreme heat in an area undergoing an event, get details like when it is supposed to start and end as well as how to stay safe.
To surface authoritative and helpful information in these moments, we’re rolling out new extreme heat alerts in Search in the coming months. When people search for information on extreme heat, they’ll see details on when a heat wave is predicted to start and end, tips on staying cool, and related health concerns to be aware of — all prominently displayed in Search results. To make sure the information is relevant and accurate, we’re working with the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN).
The company also announced that Tree Canopy, which works to increase tree coverage in order to cool down cities, is expanding from 14 to 350 cities globally.
Today, we’re announcing that Tree Canopy has expanded from 14 cities to nearly 350 cities globally — including Atlanta, Baltimore, Buenos Aires, Lisbon, Mexico City, Paris, Sydney, Toronto and more — with plans to expand to thousands more cities this year. With this expansion, Tree Canopy has the potential to help cities create cooler environments for hundreds of millions of people.
The moves come as the planet continues to feel the impacts of climate change. While Google continues to roll out these large-scale weather alert features, Apple is surprisingly silent in this area. I could see great value in bringing these types of alerts as push notifications from the Weather app on the iPhone and Apple Watch, but the company has yet to go that route.
