Evaluating Meteorological Controls on Wet Bulb Globe Temperature Sensitivity and Implications for Urban Heat Stress
Urban heat stress poses a direct threat to the public health of urban communities in arid and semi-arid regions. Heat stress can be determined using Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT), which is calculated by integrating meteorological data including wet bulb temperature, globe temperature, and dry bulb temperature. By incorporating these variables, WBGT captures the 鈥渇eel like鈥 temperature perceived by the human body, allowing heat stress to be assessed on an index scale. Over the course of a three-month urban heat field campaign (June-August 2025), a Kestrel 5400 heat sensor measurement tool was utilized to measure WBGT across five varying landscape ground cover types - traditional grass, native grass, artificial turf, gravel, and wood mulch - at five parks throughout the Denver, Colorado area. I performed a sensitivity analysis by developing meteorological baseline conditions derived from a single representative field day, adjusting air temperature and relative humidity across a 卤30% range and wind speed across a -100/+300% range to isolate and better understand their individual influence on WBGT. Initial results indicate that air temperature influences WBGT most substantially. Vegetation landscape cover types play a critical role in urban heat stress, highlighting the need for future heat mitigation strategies to be assessed.