A glossary for biometeorology

Abstract

Here we present, for the first time, a glossary of biometeorological terms. The glossary aims to address the need for a reliable source of biometeorological definitions, thereby facilitating communication and mutual understanding in this rapidly expanding field. A total of 171 terms are defined, with reference to 234 citations. It is anticipated that the glossary will be revisited in coming years, updating terms and adding new terms, as appropriate. The glossary is intended to provide a useful resource to the biometeorology community, and to this end, readers are encouraged to contact the lead author to suggest additional terms for inclusion in later versions of the glossary as a result of new and emerging developments in the field.

Delineation of Spatial Variability in the Temperature–Mortality Relationship on Extremely Hot Days in Greater Vancouver, Canada

“…Every decedent was assigned daily mean humidex values for the day of death (case day) and for all occurrences of the same weekday within the same calendar month (control days). The humidex (Equation 1) is a measure of apparent temperature that is routinely used to quantify heat exposure in Canada (Burke et al 2006; Gosling et al 2014; Masterton and Richardson 1979). …”

The effects of the 1996–2012 summer heat events on human mortality in Slovakia

“…The basic principle of this phenomenon is that an extreme weather event (such as a heat period) mainly affects people with poor health, who would die in a very short period of time anyway, regardless of the weather (Gosling et al, 2014). In other words, a negative weather event kills some of those people who would have died soon under normal weather conditions.…”

“…Also, defined thresholds have to consider the effects of both daytime high and night-time low air temperatures, respecting the variability of climatic conditions in the given area. The effect of duration also needs to be included (Robinson, 2001), which also results from another general definition by Gosling et al (2014), according to which a heat wave is a period of extreme high temperature that lasts several days. Due to the fact that not all of the above-mentioned criteria were respected precisely in our analysis, we prefer more simple terms rather than "heat wave" in our terminology.…”

Urban bioclimate and comfort assessment in the African city of Praia (Cape Verde)

“…Biometeorological and urban climate is a rapid expanding field (Gosling et al, 2014). in africa, climate studies are more focused on the impacts of heat stress on human health and livestock than on human thermal comfort in outdoor conditions, as it was shown recently by eludoyin et al (2014).…”