Tools for Calculating Heat Stress
This package currently provides three functions. The first is heatindex, which is an implementation of the simpler and faster heat index introduced by Lu et al. (2025). This simpler and faster implementation matches the values of the heat index from Steadman (1979) and Lu and Romps (2022) for air temperatures above 300 K (27 C, 80 F) and with only minor differences at lower temperatures. The second is wetbulb, which is an implementation of the wet-bulb temperature calculated using the Rankine-Kirchhoff equations as introduced by Romps (2025). The third is rh_from_wetbulb, which calculates the relative humidity as a function of the wet-bulb temperature.
The core of this package is implemented in C++ and is wrapped for use in both R and Python. Depending on your preferred programming language, navigate to the appropriate folder and follow the installation and usage instructions.
- Yi-Chuan Lu - Creator - yclu@berkeley.edu - ORCID: 0000-0003-3659-1474
- David M. Romps - Creator, Maintainer - romps@berkeley.edu - ORCID: 0000-0001-7649-5175
To cite package heatindex in publications use:
Lu, Y.-C. and Romps, D.M., 2025. heatindex: Tools for Calculating Heat Stress. https://heatindex.org.
A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
@Manual{heatindex2025,
title = {heatindex: Tools for Calculating Heat Stress},
author = {Yi-Chuan Lu and David M. Romps},
year = {2025},
note = {Version 0.0.2},
url = {https://heatindex.org},
}- Lu et al., "Simpler and faster: an improved heat index," in review (2025).
- Romps, "Wet-bulb temperature from pressure, relative humidity, and air temperature," in review (2025).
- Steadman, R.G., 1979. The assessment of sultriness. Part I: A temperature-humidity index based on human physiology and clothing science. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 18(7), pp.861-873.
- Lu, Y.-C. and Romps, D.M., 2022. Extending the heat index. Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology, 61(10), pp.1367-1383.