The growing need for valid assessment procedures of the outdoor thermal environment in the fields of public weather services, public health systems, urban planning, tourism & recreation and climate impact research raised the idea to develop the Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI based on the most recent scientific progress both in thermo-physiology and in heat exchange theory. Following exten...

Over the past century more than 100 indices have been developed and used to assess bioclimatic conditions for human beings. The majority of these indices are used sporadically or for specific purposes. Some are based on generalized results of measurements (wind chill, cooling power, wet bulb temperature) and some on the empirically observed reactions of the human body to thermal stress (physiol...

We compare the recently developed Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) with other thermal indices in analysing heat- and cold-related effects on cardiovascular (CVD) mortality in two different (urban and rural) regions in the Czech Republic during the 16-year period from 1994-2009. Excess mortality is represented by the number of deaths above expected daily values, the latter being adjusted f...

The Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI assesses the interaction of ambient temperature, wind, humidity and radiant fluxes on human physiology in outdoor environments on an equivalent temperature scale. It is based on the UTCI-Fiala model of human thermoregulation and thus also allows for thermal comfort prediction. Comparing UTCI predictions to thermal sensation votes recorded on the 7-unit A...

The Universal Thermal Climate Index UTCI provides an assessment of the outdoor thermal environment in bio-meteorological applications based on the equivalence of the dynamic physiological response predicted by a model of human thermoregulation, which was coupled with a state-of-the-art clothing model. The operational procedure, which is available as software from the UTCI website (www.utci.org)...