Republic of the Philippines

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA)

User Notes for Heat Index Data

Type of data: Derived/computed

Domain/area covered: 5 Synoptic Stations

Time period: April 21 – 30, 2023

Time scale: Daily

Data request preparation:

The requested HI data was produced through the following procedures:

1. First, the sub-daily (it could be either in an hourly, three-hourly, or six-hourly, depending on the
availability of data and frequency of observations taken at the stations) Relative Humidity (RH)
and Dry Bulb (DB) Temperature observed from Synoptic Stations with sufficient data (see the
List of Synoptic Stations.) were extracted from the DOST-PAGASA Database covering the
dates of the requested time period. Additional details pertaining to the DOST-PAGASA’s
climate database can be found in Villafuerte et al. (2021);
2. Next, the corresponding HI was derived from the extracted sub-daily RH and DB using the
algorithm described in Anderson et al. (2013); and
3. Finally, the daily maximum computed HI is obtained from the sub-daily HI. The HI for a particular
day is taken as the maximum of computed HI from 8:00AM of that day to 7:00AM of the following
day.

3-hourly RH

Computation of Aggregation
3-hourly HI to daily
Daily HI
using algorithm time scale

3-hourly DB

Figure 1. Preparation procedure for the requested Heat Index data

Output data format:

Data of daily HI is provided in Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. The CSV file contains three
columns of data: first two columns of time variable in integer format (Year & Month) and a column of
the monthly HI in integer format. The HI values of -999 indicates no available data or incomplete sub-
daily RH or DB for the particular day or month.

“tracking the sky…helping the country”

Science Garden Compound, BIR Road, Brgy.Central, Quezon City, Tel. No. (02) 8284-08-00
Metro Manila, Philippines 1100 Website: http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph
 Republic of the Philippines
DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA)

References:

Anderson, G.B., M.L. Bell, R.D. Peng, 2013: Methods to calculate the heat index as an exposure
metric in environmental health research. Environmental Health Perspective, 121: 1111–1119.
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/10.1289/ehp.1206273

Villafuerte M.Q., J.C. Lambrento, C.M. Ison, A.A. Vicente, R.G. de Guzman, E.L. Juanillo, 2021:
ClimDatPh: An online platform for Philippine climate data acquisition. Philippine Journal of Science,
150: 53-66.

List of Synoptic Stations:

1. Daet, Camarines Norte

2. Juban, Sorsogon
3. Legazpi City, Albay
4. Masbate City, Masbate
5. Virac (Synop), Catanduanes

“tracking the sky…helping the country”

Science Garden Compound, BIR Road, Brgy.Central, Quezon City, Tel. No. (02) 8284-08-00
Metro Manila, Philippines 1100 Website: http://bagong.pagasa.dost.gov.ph