Spatial Patterns of Human Thermal Comfort Conditions in Russia: Present Climate and Trends

Abstract

The assessment of bioclimatic conditions at the national scale remains a highly relevant task. It might be one of the main parts of the national strategy for the sustainable development of different regions under changing climatic conditions. This study evaluated the thermal comfort conditions and their changes in Russia according to gridded meteorological data from ERA-Interim reanalysis with a spatial resolution of 0.75° × 0.75° using the two most popular bioclimatic indices based on the human energy balance: physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) and universal thermal comfort index (UTCI). We analyzed the summer and winter means of these indices as well as the repeatability of different thermal stress grades for the current climatological standard normal period (1981–2010) and the trends of these parameters over the 1979–2018 period. We revealed the high diversity of the analyzed parameters in Russia as well as significant differences between the contemporary climate conditions and their changes in terms of mean temperature, mean values of bioclimatic indices, and thermal stress repeatability. Within the country, all degrees of thermal stress were possible; however, severe summer heat stress was rare, and in winter nearly the whole country experienced severe cold stress. Multidirectional changes in bioclimatic conditions were observed in Russia against the general background of climate warming. The European part of the country was most susceptible to climate change because it experiences significant changes both in summer and winter thermal stress repeatability. Intense Arctic warming was not reflected in significant changes in thermal stress repeatability.

Spatial patterns of West Nile virus distribution in the Volgograd region of Russia, a territory with long-existing foci

“…The increase in temperature for the warm period of 1997–2019 was weakly manifested, but affected the growth in the sum of ET required for the replication of the virus ( Table 5 ). Though the 22 year period might be a short time span to consider climate change, our results are in line with other studies that were made for a longer period and indicated a current warming trend in southern Russia [ 104 , 105 ]. At the same time, the durations of the SET and SEI were marginally shorter, although these changes were not statistically significant.…”

La Temperatura Efectiva Equivalente en Cuba

“…En Cuba la temperatura media del aire aumentó 1 ºC en el período 1951-2017 y se evidenció en el período 1981-2017 un aumento de los períodos cálidos y una disminución de los fríos (CITMA, 2020). En correspondencia, otras investigaciones realizadas en Rusia y China muestran resultados similares en cuanto a las tendencias que se están observando en índices bioclimáticos como el UTCI y PET (Wu et al, 2017;Varentsov et al, 2020).…”

North Eurasian thermal comfort indices dataset (NETCID): new gridded database for the biometeorological studies

“…Its minimum of mean UTCI in winter does not coincide the temperature minimum and is shifted to the Arctic Ocean, where local extrema below −50 • C are found. Such a mismatch is explained by high sensitivity of the UTCI index to wind speed, and by strong and persistent wind at the Arctic coast in winter (Varentsov et al 2020).…”

“…For example, winter warming in north-western Russia is strongly expressed in terms of UTCI than in terms of temperature, while the rates of mean summer PET growth in south-western Russia exceed than the rates of the temperature growth. Such amplified rates of the UTCI and PET changes indicate the additional contribution from the long-term changes of other meteorological factors including wind speed and cloudiness (Varentsov et al 2020).…”