1,2,3,3,3,4,5,6,7,- 1Departamento de Matemática Aplicada y Ciencias de la Computación, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
- 2Grupo de Meteorología y Computación, Universidad de Cantabria, Unidad Asociada al CSIC, Santander, Spain
- 3Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA), CSIC-Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
- 4Tecnalia, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), Parque Científico y Tecnológico de Bizkaia, Derio, Spain
- 5Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, Germany
- 6Fondazione Centro Euro-Mediterraneo sui Cambiamenti Climatici, Regional Model and Geo-Hydrological Impacts (REMHI) Division, Caserta, Italy
- 7Climate Adaptation and Disaster Risk Department, Deltares, Delft, the Netherlands
- *A full list of authors appears at the end of the abstract
Heatwaves are among the most dangerous climate-related natural hazards, being associated with considerable effects on population, who mostly live in urbanized areas. Under hot conditions the human body is able to regulate its core temperature via sweat evaporation, but this ability is reduced when humidity is high. The combined effect of heat and humidity invokes heat stress which, in turn, may cause dehydration, hyperthermia and heat stroke. Thus, heat stress is a multivariate problem which could affect vulnerable groups of population in different ways. A good representation of this hazard in populated areas is essential to adapt and reduce the effects of heatwaves, especially under climate change.
In order to improve the understanding of the interactions between regional climate change and urban areas, the WCRP CORDEX Flagship Pilot Study “URBan environments and Regional Climate Change” (FPS URB-RCC) is conducting coordinated experiments with a regional climate model (RCM) ensemble that includes refined urban representations. A first effort within the FPS URB-RCC (STAGE-0) consisted of the simulation of a heatwave that affected southern Europe in August 2020, causing over 300 fatalities in Paris and surroundings (the so-called Paris heatwave). An ensemble of 40 RCM simulations encompassing different models, realizations and configurations (including variations in urban schemes and land use data), was produced approximately on a 3-km grid. The present work provides an evaluation of these simulations for the Paris heatwave considering multivariate heat stress indices, with special emphasis on the intervariable relationship between temperature and humidity. Furthermore, we assess the sensitivity to the use of different models and urban representations to better understand heat stress. Improving modeling and overall understanding of heatwaves is essential for accurate risk assessment, effective urban planning and mitigation strategies to protect public health.
This work is part of project PID2023-149997OA-I00 (PROTECT) funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by ERDF/EU.
AUTH: Eleni katragkou, CNRM: Aude Lemonsu, CSIRO: Marcus Thatcher, CYI: Katiana Constantinidou, FUDAN: Jiacan Yuan, IDL: Pedro Matos Soares, SMHI: Fuxing Wang, UCL: Oscar Brousse, ICTP: Erika Coppola, RMI: Rafiq Hamdi, UM: Eloisa Raluy-López, UBA-CIMA-IFAECI: Lluis Fita, KIT: Hendrik Feldmann
How to cite: Casanueva, A., Milovac, J., Fernández, J., Simón-Moral, A., Hoffmann, P., Campanale, A., and Langendijk, G. S. and the FPS-URB-RCC community: The Paris 2020 heatwave: heat stress as represented by high-resolution regional climate model simulations, 12th International Conference on Urban Climate, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 7–11 Jul 2025, ICUC12-951, https://doi.org/10.5194/icuc12-951, 2025.
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