Even though climate change is bringing more frequent and severe heat waves, there is no standard, global way to measure heat-wave severity, and existing indices have different thresholds for defining dangerous heat-stress conditions.
Researchers report that five out of six existing heat-wave indices were unable to capture the severity and spatial distribution of recent lethal heat waves in India, Spain, and the USA. The sixth index -- the lethal heat-stress index -- was better able to identify dangerous heat-stress conditions, particularly in low-humidity regions.
Currently, countries around the world have different ways of measuring and defining heat waves, but it's not clear which of these methods is most effective or how their performance is impacted by background climatic conditions. Some of these metrics are based purely on the maximum air temperature while others include factors such as radiation, wind, and, crucially, humidity.
The lethal heat-stress index is a temperature- and humidity-based metric for identifying conditions that are likely to lead to human death . Though most of the other indices also include humidity in their calculations in some way, the way that they do this differs. Though they identified the lethal heat-stress index as the best current option, the researchers say that this index could still be improved with more research. They also note that while their study focuses on outdoor air temperatures, more heat-related mortalities occur indoors than outdoors, and future research should also address indoor conditions during heat waves and examine how they are impacted by things such as building age and materials.
This research was supported by the Hong Kong SAR Government, the Research Talent Hub of the Innovation and Technology Fund of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.Researchers showed in 2022 that heat index calculations by NOAA based on analyses from the 1970s don't adequately reflect the heat stress humans feel during the extremes of heat and humidity ...
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