Temperature - Humidity Index (THI) within the Oltenia Plain between 2000 and 2009/Indicele de temperatura - umezeala (ITU) în Câmpia Olteniei în perioada 2000-2009

Abstract

Temperature-humidity index, also known as thennal comfort index, represents an extremely used index in mass-media nowadays; it renders an apparent temperature, namely the temperature felt by humall body that cools slower at higher values of the relative humidity due to the reduction of the evaporation rate. THI is calculated on the base of several formulas, which corroborate air temperature and relative humidity, the critical threshold being 80. By analysing the statistical date supplied by the Regional Meteorological Center Craiova, it comes out that the years with the highest number of days with THI values above 80 are 2000, 2001, and 2007 for the entire studied territory, when, during summer, the region was affected by numerous heat waves, which led to the frequent exceeding of the 40 degrees Celsius value. The most affected area is located in the central-southern and eastern parts of the Oltenia Plain -- 51 days with THI > 80 at Caracal in 2000, 47 days with THI > 80 at Bechet in 2001, and 41 days with THI > 80 at Bailesti in 2007.