Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI)
The universal thermal climate index (UTCI), is a bioclimatological model of an average human body’s response to different thermal conditions, where the subject is not acclimatised to the climate and is outdoors, doing minimal work.
More Information: https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/gdj3.102
How To Use
You will need 2m temperature and mean radiant temperature in Kelvin, relative humidity (calculated as shown below,using 2m dew point temperature in Kelvin) and 10 meter height wind speed in m/s. Please use with numpy arrays.
It returns the universal thermal climate index in Celsius.
rh_pc = tfc.calculate_relative_humidity_percent(self.t2m, self.td)
ehPa = tfc.calculate_saturation_vapour_pressure(self.t2m) * rh_pc / 100.0
utci = calculate_utci(2m_temperature,mean_radiant_temperature, 10m_wind_speed,
2m_dew_point_temperature=None, ehPa=None)
Interpret the Output
Universal Thermal Climate Index (°C) |
Thermal Stress |
|---|---|
> 46 |
Extreme heat stress |
38 to 46 |
Very strong heat stress |
32 to 38 |
Strong heat stress |
26 to 32 |
Moderate heat stress |
9 to 26 |
no thermal stress |
0 to 9 |
slight cold stress |
-13 to 0 |
moderate cold stress |
-13 to -27 |
strong cold stress |
-27 to -40 |
vey strong cold stress |
< - 40 |
extreme cold stress |