Identification

Title

Climate change reduces the wind chill hazard across Alaska

Abstract

<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;background-color:rgb(255, 255, 255);color:rgb(34, 34, 34);display:inline !important;float:none;font-family:-apple-system, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, Oxygen-Sans, Ubuntu, Cantarell, "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif;font-size:18px;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:normal;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;orphans:2;text-align:start;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;">Low wind chill temperatures can have negative impacts on human health and the capability of performing outdoor activities. An open question is how climate change is projected to impact this hazard in high latitude land regions. Here we focus on changes in the magnitude and timing of extreme wind chill days (i.e., days with wind chill temperatures below −34.4 °C) in response to future changes in large-scale mean-state climate conditions in Alaska. We find a future reduction in extreme wind chill days, especially in northern Alaska and at lower elevations where most of the population resides. Moreover, the extreme wind chill days’ mean date shifts by up to two weeks later in the future, with a narrower seasonal distribution compared to the historical period. These changes are primarily attributed to increased temperatures rather than changes in wind speed. Our finding highlights how this hazard decreases under future large-scale mean-state climate conditions, with likely positive impacts for human health and an increased capability to perform outdoor activities.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7ns109c

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2025-03-11T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Copyright author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact