Different definitions of heatwaves exist based on the statistical distribution of temperature, in general using thresholds and  duration and extension criteria. If one observes the overlap between these definitions and the actual human and material damage produced by heatwaves, it appears that there is low consistency between the two. In other terms, a large amplitude  heatwave in the physical climatological sense may not be equivalently as large in terms of impacts.

By crossing meteorological (E-OBS), demographic (WorldPop, GHS-POP), and impact (EM-DAT) databases at the European scale, we developed indices to classify heatwaves and select extreme ones in terms of impacts. We also proposed a method to  evaluate the classification abilities of these indices. Including demographic data in the indices seems central to understand the links between meteorological conditions and observed impacts.

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