Seasonal and spatial distribution of physiologically equivalent temperature (PET) index in Hungary

The aim of this study is to present a thermal human bioclimate analysis of Hungary by means of mapping, useing multiple linear regressions. The present study links geographical information with climatological data in order to generate a spatial distribution of PET values of a region. The distribution of average PET values of seasons are drawn at 1 km resolution. Meteorological data used to draw the maps was made with the help of data collation program at the Climatic Research Unit (University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK). The calculation of PET is performed with the aid of the RayMan model, which calculates the measures of the thermal human bioclimate. The calculated PET values show that the difference between the highest and lowest temperature areas is between 7–11 oC. This means two comfort level differences generally. The winter is an exception, when the whole country can be rated to the same physiological stress level. Key-words: physiologically equivalent temperature, thermal comfort, mapping, Hungary