TY - JOUR
TI - Long-term trends and spatiotemporal variations of climate comfort in China during 1966-2016
AU - Wu Fei-Fei
AU - Yang Xiao-Hua
AU - Shen Zhen-Yao
AU - Yi Ze-Ji
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2020
VL - 24
IS - 4
SP - 2445
EP - 2453
PT - Article
AB - Climate comfort and its variability are of great importance to human comfort,  health and well-being, as humans may suffer dire consequences when they are  exposed to the environments with heat or cold stress. The climate comfort  index represented the integrated effects of meteorological variables on the  human thermal sensation. The annual and seasonal climate comfort index  values were calculated based on the monthly data of the temperature,  relative humidity, and wind speed from 591 stations in China between 1966  and 2016. Using the empirical orthogonal function analysis, the dominant  modes of climate comfort index variations were extracted by the first two  modes, which accounted for more than 50% of the total variance. The results  showed that the annual and seasonal climate comfort index values displayed  a latitudinal gradient, and increased towards the south except for the  Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The most frequently perceived thermal sensations  were labeled as "cold", "comfortable", "cold" and "extremely cold"  conditions from spring to winter, respectively. For annual and seasonal  climate comfort index, the consistent increasing trend was detected in most  regions of China in the first mode. The sensitive areas were mainly located  in the central, eastern and southern China in winter, while in the northern  and western China in summer. In the second mode, the fluctuations between  upward and downward trends were observed. The sensitive areas were located  in the central China in summer, in the southwestern and southern China in  autumn, and in the northern China in winter. This study provides the  important information for the improvement of human settlement comfort.