Kuwait spent 282 days over the highest heat-danger line by one industrial threshold

Researchers analysed the heat index for every hour of the last 14 years in Kuwait and found a rising trend in temperature and humidity, and a 2025 that recorded the most days in the most dangerous category of the study period [s1]. The analysis is a measure of exposure, not of illness — but it quantifies the environmental load that a separate review says is straining Gulf emergency services [s1][s2].

What was measured

The study, published in the International Journal of Biometeorology on 24 August 2026 by authors at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, used the US National Weather Service heat index — the "feels-like" temperature that combines air temperature and relative humidity — for every hour from 2012 to 2025 [s1]. Summer maximum temperatures in the region routinely exceed 50C [s1].

The authors classified hours and days against three separate threshold systems: one used by the Kuwait Oil Company, one used by Saudi Arabia's Aramco, and the National Weather Service's own [s1]. Each divides conditions into four ranges — Caution, Extreme Caution, Danger and Extreme Danger — but sets the cut-offs at different heat-index values, which is why the day counts differ between systems [s1].

The findings

Across the 14 years, the annual minimum, average and maximum temperature and relative humidity all showed a positive linear trend [s1].

The mean annual number of days on which the maximum heat index reached the Danger category was 119.71 days (32%) under the Kuwait Oil Company thresholds, 96.78 days (26.51%) under the Aramco thresholds and 101.64 days (27.84%) under the National Weather Service thresholds [s1]. In other words, by the industrial thresholds used to manage outdoor work, roughly a third of days in a typical year reached the Danger level.

The Extreme Danger counts diverge sharply because the systems define that category at very different temperatures — 46C or above for the Kuwait Oil Company, 52C for Aramco and 54C for the National Weather Service [s1]. Over the study period the maximum heat index exceeded Extreme Danger on 282 days (77%) by the Kuwait Oil Company definition, 29 days (7.9%) by Aramco's, and 5 days (1.36%) by the National Weather Service's [s1].

The year 2025 recorded the highest number of days on which the daily maximum heat index exceeded Extreme Danger, particularly in August [s1]. A total of 17 hours across the study period exceeded the National Weather Service threshold of 54C or above, spanning from as early as 9am to 4pm [s1]. A heat index as high as 52C was observed in some instances as early as 7am and as late as 7pm and midnight [s1].

Why the timing matters

The early-morning and late-night readings are the part with the clearest health implication. Heat-illness prevention often assumes a midday risk window; a "feels-like" temperature of 52C at 7am, or dangerous conditions persisting to midnight, narrows the hours in which outdoor activity is safe [s1]. The authors frame temporal variability in thermal stress as essential to understand for both public and occupational health [s1].

A literature review of heat-related emergencies in the Gulf, published in Cureus in July 2026, describes the clinical side of that exposure [s2]. It reports that heat-related illnesses disproportionately affect outdoor workers, pilgrims and vulnerable groups such as older adults and people with chronic disease, and that delayed presentation, diagnostic overlap with other acute conditions and variability in emergency-department cooling practices contribute to worse outcomes [s2]. It identifies early recognition and rapid cooling as the cornerstone of management [s2].

The limits

The Kuwait analysis is a single-country study of one exposure metric, and it does not link the heat-index record to hospital admissions or deaths [s1]. The heat index itself is a proxy: it estimates perceived heat under standard assumptions and does not capture sun exposure, physical exertion or acclimatisation. The Cureus paper is a narrative review rather than a primary epidemiological study, and it draws on literature published between 2010 and 2025 [s2]. What the two together establish is the scale of the environmental signal — a measurable, rising heat load in one Gulf state — and the clinical categories most exposed to it [s1][s2].