Seasonal analysis and trend of heat stress in Iran using ERA5 data

To assess thermal comfort of residences, several different factors as meteorological, physiological, and socio-cultural, should be considered. The integrated effect of these variables on thermal stress can be obtained and evaluated using thermal comfort indices. Thermal comfort as a bio-meteorological index is of special importance. The purpose of this research is to analyze the seasonality and trend of heat stress in Iran in the period from 1981 to 2020. In this research, the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) index as a common thermal index was evaluated for outdoor thermal comfort, using ERA5 dataset. ERA5 is the fifth generation ECMWF reanalysis data for the global climate and weather for the past 4 to 7 decades. The ERA5 provides hourly estimates for a large number of atmospheric, ocean-wave, and land-surface quantities. An uncertainty estimate is evaluated by an underlying 10-member ensemble at three-hour intervals. Such uncertainty estimates are closely related to the information content of the available observing system which has improved considerably over time. They also indicate flow-dependent sensitive areas (Hersbach et al., 2020). Also, root mean square error (RMSE), Percent bias (PBIAS), Nash–Sutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE), and Root Mean Standard Deviation Ratio (RSR) metrics were used to evaluate the quality of ERA5 dataset.The seasonal variability of the UTCI index shows that this index has significant regional heterogeneity in Iran. The increase in UTCI from the north to the south of Iran leads to an increase in thermal stress. The spatial distribution of areas that do not have thermal stress during the hot period of the year are mainly consistent with the altitudes. During the cold seasons of the year, areas with elevations of more than 3,000 meters in Iran have moderate cold stress. The investigation of the trend of thermal stress during the last four decades, which was analyzed with the modified Mann-Kendall test, shows that the UTCI in Iran has a dominant increasing trend. The UTCI index shows an increasing trend in the spring and autumn seasons by 100%, and in the winter and summer seasons at 99.83 and 99.75% of the country, respectively. The maximum significant increasing trend of the index at the level of 0.05 was achieved in the spring. In the same way, the highest value of Sen's slope estimator test of the area-averaged trend is also seen with the value of 0.52 oC in this season in the study period. The results of this study for climatology and the trend of the UTCI index in Iran show that: 1- There is a close relationship between heat and cold stresses in Iran and topography, but this relationship is not a linear; 2- Along with global warming, the UTCI index in Iran during the years 1981-2020 has shown an increasing trend; 3- In general, areas with UTCI cold stress in the country are decreasing and areas with heat stress are increasing; 4- One of the key findings in this study is the significant increase in trend of the UTCI index in the spring season.