Recent Developments and Next Steps in Seasonal Forecasting and Health

The underlying theme of this session, seasonal forecasting and health, from research to operations, is rapidly moving to centre stage in the global discussions on adaptation to climate variability within a changing climate. Research funded by the European Union and described in the chapter by Hewitt (this book) ‘The impact on human health of climate and climate change: Research in the ENSEMBLES project from seasonal to centennial timescales’ has been the ‘front runner’ in this process. It builds on the work of the previous EU funded DEMETER project led by the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) which paved the way by demonstrating that improvements in weather and climate science can be rapidly integrated into improvements in health delivery systems; if one is prepared to invest at the interface between the health-climate, research-operational/stakeholder, communities.