JAMA Network: Thunderstorm Asthma and Climate Change

On November 21, 2016, the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia, experienced an unprecedented and extreme weather event. The event was “thunderstorm asthma,” defined as the sudden onset of asthma symptoms in a large number of people due to a rare interaction between specific types of thunderstorm and high airborne allergen levels. Within 30 hours of the event onset on November 21, 2016, the following impacts were seen in local hospitals: 3365 people presented to an emergency department with acute respiratory symptoms, representing a 672% increase over the typical number of respiratory-related emergency department presentations; 476 asthma-related hospital admissions occurred, representing a 992% increase over the typical number of asthma-related hospital admissions; 35 people were admitted to an intensive care unit, exceeding the typical rate of 5 or less per day; and the event was responsible for 10 deaths.

Thunderstorm asthma was not on my climate change radar. (BTW, can you guys access the article?)