Climate, Environment and Health
Climate change refers to any significant long term change in current normal climate conditions, such as temperature, precipitation, extreme weather events, snow cover and sea level rise. Learn about how climate change may affect health.
The built and natural environment can affect your immediate and long-term health. Learn how to improve and monitor air quality and identify a variety of other hazards in the region.
Water quality and testing
Access to safe water is important. Learn more about how Huron Perth Public Health helps ensure safe drinking water and recreational water, including beach water testing.
Weather
Extreme weather events are a growing public health concern due to the impacts of climate change. Huron and Perth counties experience both extreme heat and extreme cold events seasonally.
Learn how to stay safe in extreme heat and extreme cold.
Weather alerts are issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and shared locally. In November 2025, ECCC launched a colour-coded weather alert system to help Canadians stay safe during severe weather. Forecasters choose the colour based on how confident they are that the weather will happen, and the possible impacts that weather may have. Every type of alert - warnings, advisories and watches - is colour-coded to better indicate the level of risk.
Yellow
Hazardous; impacts moderate, localized, and/or short-term; most common
Orange
Severe; impacts major and/or widespread; uncommon
Red
Very dangerous; impacts extreme, extensive and prolonged; rare
No matter what its colour, always read the full alert. It includes details about the weather event and actions you can take to stay safe. More information can be found on the ECCC webpage.
Historical Alerts Issued
The table below lists the number of air quality alerts, heat warnings, and cold warnings issued by Environment Canada for Huron and Perth each year since 2020.
| Alert type | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air quality | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
| Heat warning | 5 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 |
| Cold warning | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 |