Description
Anomalies can help identify variability more meaningfully than absolute values. High or low absolute values in one location may be ‘normal’ for that location while they may be catastrophic in another. The Extreme Heat - Anomaly dataset provides more meaningful local comparisons by capturing where extreme heat is unusual for a specific location.
Technical Description
The Extreme Heat Anomaly Monthly Summary (Global, v1.1) dataset provides a global summary of human exposure to anomalous extreme heat conditions, derived from ERA5-Land Daily Aggregated and Timely reanalysis data. For each month, daily 2 m air temperature and dew point temperature are combined to calculate heat index values. The dataset then quantifies the frequency of days in which heat index values exceed both 70 °F (21.1 °C) and the 95th percentile baseline (1992–2021), indicating anomalously severe heat exposure. The resulting summaries are expressed as the proportion of days in the month meeting this criterion. Outputs have an 11 km spatial resolution and are published with a temporal granularity of one month. This product is intended to support risk assessments, climate adaptation planning, and monitoring of human exposure to extreme heat hazards.