The application offers in a “quick and intuitive” way to the general public the consultation of “maps, graphs and decades of data to monitor stress by heat and cold globally and how it is changing over time.”
The European Land Observation Program has announced the creation of a free application, Theal Trace, which allows public access to data on stress by heat or cold.
The “app” offers “rapidly and intuitively” to the general public, journalists, political decision makers, scientists and others the consultation of “maps, graphics and decades of data to monitor stress by heat and cold at the global level and how it is changing over time,” says one released by Copernicus.
There is talk of thermal stress when the ability of the human body to regulate its temperature is difficult by environmental conditions, too hot or cold.
A It was created by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and the European Center for Medium Time Forecasting (ECMWF), noting the statement that Heat stress are aggravated around the world, pointed out by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “one of the leading causes of climate -related deaths.”
In 2023, in Europe, there were about 48,000 heat -related deaths, according to the European Climate State report 2024.
At a time when climate change make “more frequent and more intense” It is important to “understand and monitor thermal stress and its impacts on human health,” consider the creators of the “app”.
The application provides data based on the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), which It takes into account the temperature, moisture, wind speed, sunlight and heat emitted by the environment, as well as the way the human body reacts to the environment, to determine a “felt temperature”.
Stress by heat is classified as: moderate (26 degrees Celsius at 32 ° C), strong (32 ° C to 38 ° C), very strong (38 ° C to 46 ° C) and extreme, above 46 ° C.
As for cold, UTCI considers temperatures of thermal sensation of 9 ° C to 0 ° C as stress by light cold, 0 ° C to -13 ° C moderate, -13 ° C to -27 ° C intense, -27 ° C to -40 ° C and below -40 ° C stress by extreme cold.
“Users can view data through maps and graphics, which show how these indicators have varied and changed worldwide in the last 85 years and up to five days before” from the consultation.
The information that gave rise to the graphs can be discharged directly from the application and the complete set of data is available in .
“The intense and repeated heat waves that many of us have lived in recent months are just an example of the impact of thermal stress on people (…). With Thermal Trace, we intend to empower citizens and decision makers, ensuring that a data source of thermal stress is more affordable than ever,” says Rebecca Emerton, a C3S scientist.
