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Heat Stress Metrics for US Census Tracts 1998-2020
Rouzbeh Rahai1, Qinqin Kong2, Timur Dogan3
1Department of Human Centered Design, College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. rr692@cornell.edu.
Scientific Data
|February 25, 2026
Summary
New datasets provide hourly heat stress metrics like Heat Index (HI), Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) across U.S. census tracts. This research addresses public health threats from extreme heat exposure.
Area of Science:
- Environmental science
- Public health
- Climate science
Background:
- Extreme heat exposure poses a significant public health risk.
- Traditional heat research often relies on dry-bulb temperature, lacking comprehensive heat stress quantification.
- Limited availability of integrated, spatially explicit datasets hinders public health-aligned heat stress research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and provide high-resolution, hourly heat stress datasets for the contiguous U.S.
- To integrate multiple meteorological factors for a more accurate assessment of heat stress.
- To enable direct linkage between heat stress data and public health information at the census tract level.
Main Methods:
- Generated hourly Heat Index (HI), Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), and Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) data.
- Integrated PRISM, ERA5-Land, and NSRDB products, reconstructing near-surface temperature and moisture fields.
- Aggregated heat stress indices to census tract boundaries using area- and population-weighted methods.
Main Results:
- Provided hourly HI, WBGT, and UTCI data for U.S. census tracts from 1998-2020.
- Achieved stable validation performance with low root mean squared errors for air temperature (1.70°C), HI (3.20°C), WBGT (2.90°C), and UTCI (3.26°C).
- Created spatially explicit, public-health-aligned heat stress datasets.
Conclusions:
- The developed datasets fill a critical gap in heat-health research by providing comprehensive heat stress metrics.
- These hourly, tract-level data facilitate detailed analysis of heat exposure's impact on public health.
- The findings support improved strategies for mitigating risks associated with extreme heat events.
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