Abstract: Heat waves (HWs) represent a major danger to society and natural environment. The increasing occurrence of high magnitude and impact HWs has raised concerns worldwide and has attracted an increasing interest on this issue among climatologists over the past decade. In this review the research from 2007-2018 period on HWs definitions, driving mechanisms, present changes, future changes, and impact on human mortality is summarized. By reviewing the recent literature, it was found that whilst the atmospheric dynamic is considered to be the primary driver in HW occurrence, the sea surface temperature (SST) and land surface conditions are also essential driving components. The vastness of HW-definitions raises difficulties in selecting the appropriate methodology to identify heat episodes and to compare results from studies which used different definitions. However, by analyzing a sample of 109 papers, a preference for percentile-based definitions was observed. Therefore, 71.6% of the analyzed articles used only percentile-based definitions to identify HWs. Despite the wide variety of definitions, the analysis of changes in HWs converged to similar results. Thus, the existing recent literature provided extensive evidence of significant increase in HWs characteristics across large regions of the planet. Available scientific literature indicated that HWs have been responsible for a considerable increase in mortality in many regions of the world. In the future HWs are predicted to increase in their main characteristics leading to a greater impact on human mortality. Nevertheless, the implementation of rigorous adaptation measures can mitigate the negative impact on mortality. In conclusion, it was noted that a substantial progress has been done in the HW research, but there are still important gaps in this issue which need to be addressed.