Bonn, 20/08/2025

As climate change is exacerbating heat stress around the world, the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) and ECMWF* have created Thermal Trace, a fast and intuitive application enabling the general audience, journalists, policymakers, scientists and more to explore maps, charts and decades of data to monitor heat and cold stress globally and how this is changing over time.

With heat stress being already a leading cause of weather-related deaths, according to the WHO, and heatwaves becoming more frequent and more intense with climate change, understanding and monitoring thermal stress and its impacts on human health are critical.To enhance our understanding of heat and cold stress, the application provides data based on the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), which not only considers the temperature, but also accounts for humidity, wind speed, sunshine and the heat emitted by the surroundings, as well as how the human body reacts to the environment. The UTCI provides a ‘feels-like temperature’ based on the combination of these factors.

Thermal Trace allows people to access these data in an easy and intuitive manner with just a few clicks. Users can visualise the data through maps and charts, showing how these indicators have varied and changed across the globe over the last 85 years up to five days before present day. The data behind the charts can be downloaded directly from the app, and the full dataset is available in theClimate Data Store. The app’s launch includes the publication of the post-processed thermal comfort data contained in the app, such as the number of heat stress days or tropical nights, and maximum/minimum statistics at daily, monthly, seasonal and annual time scales. This app is completely free to use and does not require users to create an account.

Read more about the app inthis article.Users can access this new app through thislink.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service website can be found athttp://atmosphere.copernicus.eu/

The Copernicus Climate Change Service website can be found athttps://climate.copernicus.eu/

More information on Copernicus:www.copernicus.eu

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