Caribbean Heat Stress Atlas

Abstract

The Caribbean Heat Stress Atlas is an interactive, web-based visualization system designed as a Caribbean-scale framework and implemented here as a Puerto Rico pilot module. The prototype ingests NOAA station observations and computes interpretable heat metrics such as the annual number of hot days (Tmax ≥ 32 °C) and warm nights (Tmin ≥ 24 °C) for long-running stations across the island. For each station, metrics are summarized into early versus late windows (first vs. second half of available years) and displayed in a Leaflet-based web map where users can switch metrics, change units (°C/°F), and inspect station-specific popups. Complementary time-series plots for representative coastal/urban and interior highland stations illustrate how hot days and warm nights have evolved over 1960–2025, with stronger warming signals at coastal/urban stations (e.g., San Juan and Ponce) relative to interior stations in this station network. The system is hosted as a static web application on GitHub Pages, providing a lightweight and reproducible framework that can be extended to additional Caribbean locations and to humidity-informed indicators (like heat index) in future iterations. Keywords — Climate Visualization, Extreme Heat Indicators, Heat Stress, Web Mapping.