Recent Increases in Exposure to Extreme Humid‐Heat Events Disproportionately Affect Populated Regions

Abstract

Abstract Extreme heat research has largely focused on dry‐heat, while humid‐heat that poses a substantial threat to human‐health remains relatively understudied. Using hourly high‐resolution ERA5 reanalysis and HadISD station data, we provide the first spatially comprehensive, global‐scale characterization of the magnitude, seasonal timing, and frequency of dry‐ and wet‐bulb temperature extremes and their trends. While the peak dry‐ and humid‐heat extreme occurrences often coincide, their timing differs in climatologically wet regions. Since 1979, dry‐ and humid‐heat extremes have become more frequent over most land regions, with the greatest increases in the tropics and Arctic. Humid‐heat extremes have increased disproportionately over populated regions (∼5.0 days per‐person per‐decade) relative to global land‐areas (∼3.6 days per‐unit‐land‐area per‐decade) and population exposure to humid‐heat has increased at a faster rate than to dry‐heat. Our study highlights the need for a multivariate approach to understand and mitigate future harm from heat stress in a warming world.