Rising temperatures, shifting population: Changes in children's ambient heat exposure in China.

Average annual ambient heat exposure to moderate-or-strong levels among 250 million children in China rose by 385 hours from 1989–1991 to 2019–2021.

• Why it matters: Heat-wave trends may not translate directly into children’s ambient exposures, especially as both temperatures and where children live change over time.
• What they did: The study used a double-dual-distributional framework combining ambient temperature and child population geospatial/temporal distributions, and intensity and duration thresholds, comparing 1989–1991 with 2019–2021.
• The result: The share exposed to strong heat for at least 12% of hours increased from 8.1% (24.9 million) to 23.7% (59.1 million), with both warming and child-location shifts contributing and implying forecasts should include population redistribution.

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