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Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Applied Science Innovations

Annals of Computer Science and Information Systems, Volume 46

Assessing the Accuracy of ERA5-Land in Heatwave Monitoring

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15439/2025I2025

Citation: Proceedings of the 2025 International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Applied Science Innovations, Gerasimos Pylarinos, Christos P. Antonopoulos, George Syrrokostas, Panteleimon Apostolopoulos, Stratos David (eds). ACSIS, Vol. 46, pages 21–27 ()

Full text

Abstract. This study investigates the ability of reanalysis data to accurately identify heatwave events (HEs) in Greece from 1960 to 2022. High-resolution gridded reanalysis data from ERA5-Land, providing consistent land variables, namely maximum daily temperature over several decades, are utilized. In addition, HEs have been identified through high-quality homogenized meteorological data provided by the Hellenic National Meteorological Service (HNMS) from 1960 to 2022. The HEs are identified through a percentile-based threshold, calculated via a bootstrap resampling methodology to address artificial discontinuities in the reference period of 1961-1990. Furthermore, the HEs from both datasets are analyzed in terms of frequency, duration, and severity of events. Finally, the HEs calculated from the ERA5 dataset are assessed across five intensity classes derived from five percentile-based thresholds to evaluate their accuracy to capture these events. Expected results reveal the strengths and weaknesses of ERA5-Land data in capturing heatwave characteristics across different climate regions of Greece. This study will provide insights into the reliability of ERA5-Land as a tool for heatwave monitoring and risk assessment, informing the development of more effective heat-health action plans and climate adaptation strategies. The findings will be particularly relevant for regions with limited observational data, where ERA5-Land can serve as a valuable source of information

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