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An anthropocentric Summer Severity Index

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Abstract

An index depicting the severity of summer weather was developed for New York City and was used to examine the severity of summers during the period 1946–1975. This index incorporates various important parameters of summer weather and is primarily intended to represent the likely impact of summer weather on human comfort, morbidity, and mortality. This index would be applicable in areas that have a distribution of summer weather parameters characteristic of humid continental warm summer climate types. A linear regression of the Summer Severity Index against time was performed and indicated no significant trends in summer severity over the period of record.

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McLaughlin, J.T., Shulman, M.D. An anthropocentric Summer Severity Index. Int J Biometeorol 21, 16–28 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01552963

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