heat_index¶

metpy.calc.heat_index(temperature, relative_humidity, mask_undefined=True)¶

Calculate the Heat Index from the current temperature and relative humidity.

The implementation uses the formula outlined in [Rothfusz1990], which is a multi-variable least-squares regression of the values obtained in [Steadman1979]. Additional conditional corrections are applied to match what the National Weather Service operationally uses. See Figure 3 of [Anderson2013] for a depiction of this algorithm and further discussion.

Parameters

temperature (pint.Quantity) – Air temperature
relative_humidity (pint.Quantity) – The relative humidity expressed as a unitless ratio in the range [0, 1]. Can also pass a percentage if proper units are attached.
mask_undefined (bool, optional) – A flag indicating whether a masked array should be returned with values masked where the temperature < 80F. Defaults to True.

Returns

pint.Quantity – Corresponding Heat Index value(s)

Changed in version 1.0: Renamed rh parameter to relative_humidity