Wet Bulb Globe Temperature: indicating extreme heat risk on a global grid

Brimicombe, C., Lo, C. H. B., Pappenberger, F., Di Napoli, C., Maciel, P., Quintino, T., Cornforth, R. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4379-9556 and Cloke, H. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1472-868X (2023) Wet Bulb Globe Temperature: indicating extreme heat risk on a global grid. GeoHealth, 7 (2). e2022GH000701. ISSN 2471-1403 doi: 10.1029/2022GH000701

Abstract/Summary

The Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) is an international standard heat index used by the health, industrial, sports and climate sectors to assess thermal comfort during heat extremes. Observations of its components, the globe and the wet bulb temperature, are however sparse. Therefore WBGT is difficult to derive, making it common to rely on approximations, such as the ones developed by Liljegren and colleagues (2008,WBGT_Liljegren) and by the American College of Sports Medicine (WBGT_ACSM87). In this study, a global dataset is created by implementing an updated WBGT method using ECMWF ERA5 gridded meteorological variables and is evaluated against existing WBGT methods. The new method, WBGT_Brimicombe, uses globe temperature calculated using mean radiant temperature and is found to be accurate in comparison to WBGT_Liljegren across three heatwave case studies. In addition, it is found that WBGT_ACSM87 is not an adequate approximation of WBGT. Our new method is a candidate for a global forecasting early warning system.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/110531
Identification Number/DOI	10.1029/2022GH000701
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Walker Institute Science > School of Archaeology, Geography and Environmental Science > Department of Geography and Environmental Science Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Publisher	Wiley
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