Heat is one of the most frequently examined environmental influences on population health, and a wide variety of data sources exist to measure exposure. This pre-PAA workshop, sponsored by the Center on Aging, Health, and Environment (CACHE), provides an overview of heat measures and examples of two, including hands-on experience with code available via the CACHE website. Participants will generate temperature exposure measures from publicly available data, as well as wet bulb temperatures. The Universal Thermal Climate Index data will also be demonstrated and linked to population data. Learn more and register here. This workshop will take place in St. Louis, Missouri on May 6, 1-5:30 PM CT . Please note you must be registered for PAA in order to attend.
The workshop’s first exercise uses data from two different sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) weather-stations and ERA5-Land Reanalysis from the European Union’s Copernicus Project. Both are publicly available. The workshop will review information on acquiring and cleaning daily temperature data for New York City, as an example. Key is that air temperature as well as wet bulb temperature exposure variables are generated, and at varying temporal resolution. On the CACHE website, the code is embedded in an R Markdown pdf file.
The second exercise demonstrates how to construct severe heat measures using the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI, Copernicus ERA5-HEAT). It starts by showing data manipulation from raster (grid data) to a tabular dataset that obtains UTCI values for each municipality in Mexico as an example. Then, the data are mapped and analyzed as linked to population data. Finally, the number of days of severe heat (32°C UTCI and above) are generated. This code, also available on the CACHE website, is part of the demonstration CACHE project “Heat, Disability in older adults and Care” from El Colegio de Mexico.
Lead Instructors:
Dr. Frank Heiland, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research
Dr. Alex Mikulas, CACHE
Dr. Landy Sanchez, El Colegio de Mexico
Organizers:
Lori Hunter, University of Colorado Boulder, and Deborah Balk, CUNY Institute for Demographic Research
Keep an eye out for an email in the coming weeks with additional details.
The preliminary program for this year’s Data-Intensive Research Conference is now available. Registration is open for both virtual and in-person participation through July 3; there is no registration fee to attend, but space is limited. Applications for the pre-conference workshop on IPUMS Full Count Census Data are open through April 1.
The Middle East Center in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies announces the 2025-26 competition for the Parvin E’tesami Student Support Fund. We invite applications from undergraduate and graduate students in all disciplines, including international students, who are engaged in the study of the Middle East and North Africa and who will be enrolled at the University of Washington during the 2025-26 academic year. The application deadline is May 5, 2026. Apply now: https://forms.office.com/r/yYvSmDbfUs.
The Parvin E’tesami Student Support Fund was made possible by a generous donation from Mr. Babak Parviz to provide broad-based support for students studying the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the University of Washington. E’tesami was a Persian-language poet whose oeuvre was preoccupied with vulnerable members of Iranian society in the early twentieth century. The fund is administered by the Middle East Center in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.
Awards: Up to $2,000 each
Eligibility: Open to undergraduate and graduate students enrolled at the University of Washington who demonstrate a serious academic interest in the Middle East and North Africa. Funding can support the following activities related to the study of the MENA: conference registration and/or travel; research or fieldwork expenses; language training; study abroad; and general living expenses while studying at UW.
Selection criteria: Selection will be based on the intellectual merit and feasibility of the proposed activity, academic achievement, and the applicant’s demonstrated ability to serve as a professional representative of Middle East and North Africa Studies at the University of Washington.
A CACHE Pre-PAA Workshop in St. Louis, Missouri on May 6, 1-5:30pm CT: Measuring Heat for Use in Population Research
So many questions arise when trying to measure heat as a health exposure – let CACHE help! Heat is one of the most frequently examined environmental influences on population health, and a wide variety of data sources exist to measure exposure. This CACHE sponsored workshop provides an overview of heat measures and examples of two, including hands-on experience with code available via the CACHE website. Participants will generate temperature exposure measures from publicly available data, as well as wet bulb temperatures. The Universal Thermal Climate Index data will also be demonstrated and linked to population data. Learn more here.