Extreme heat risks to pregnancy driven by climate change: North America
2020 to 2024
We counted the number of days with temperatures warmer than 95% of temperatures observed at a given location (also referred to as temperatures above the 95th percentile) — a threshold which research1 shows can bring increased risk of preterm birth. We define these extremely hot days as “pregnancy heat-risk days.”
-
During 2020 to 2024, the five analyzed countries in North America (not including Central America or the Caribbean) experienced at least 10 additional pregnancy heat-risk days on average each year due to climate change.
-
Bermuda experienced the most additional pregnancy heat-risk days each year (32) on average annually — which accounted for 86% of the city’s total.
Explore data for countries and cities across North America in the interactive maps below.
Countries with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change
Cities with the most pregnancy heat-risk days added by climate change
1We chose this percentile based on peer-reviewed research from Kuehn et al. (2017), Wang et al. (2013), Wang et al. (2024), and McElroy et al. (2022).