Even September was a very warm month, breaking records across all Europe and not only, which means that 2023 as a whole is on track for being the hottest year to date.

Unlike storms, which can inflict damage that we know of and can prepare fairly well against, for the most part, "heat is silent and invisible. It doesn’t attract attention like other climate hazards do, yet it’s killing more people than any other climate hazard. It creeps up on the body", says Kathy Baughman McLeod, director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, for Fast Company.

First of all, people need to change their expectations for what can and can't happen during a severe heatwave, experts suggest. If during a storm, you don't expect to have a package delivered or maybe a delay in the delivery, so we should during heatwaves, as well. Eugenia Kargbo, chief heat officer of Freetown,

Sierra Leone, believes that planting trees can be a good solution to mitigate the effects of heatwaves on the population, as they can cool down the air, while providing shadow for passers-by. Sierra Leone's capital has the goal to plant one million trees by the end of this year, with 700.000 already set in.

At the same time, naming heatwaves, similarly to how we name hurricanes, can help us create the culture of preparedness, making community members across the board more aware of the potential danger.

Green roofs and cooling paints can also be solutions when it comes to the heatwave problem, which can help greatly. This means rethinking the way we construct and consolidate our buildings.

Eleni Myrivili, chief heat officer for the City of Athens, explained that not all cities can implement the same set of measures and call it a day, since "every city has a very, very different type of heat, and a very different type of impact of heat."

This is why every city in the world needs a chief heat officer to help with finding proper solutions to prevent heatwaves from wreaking havoc in the world's urban settlements, she believes, regardless of the country or the geographic location.