Diurnal Cycle of Human Thermal Comfort in Maceió-AL

Abstract Changes in land use and occupation in cities have direct consequences in the urban thermal field, whose physical and microclimate characteristics become attractive to human coexistence. This research aimed to analyze the variation of a biometeorological index and to quantitatively study the diurnal cycle of human thermal comfort in Maceió-AL, using hourly data provided by the automatic meteorological station of the National Institute of Meteorology (INMET) between the years 2004 to 2015. On average, there is a feeling of comfort from 00 to 09 UTC; from 11 to 20 UTC the sensation of thermal discomfort by heat prevails. After 21 UTC, the discomfort due to heat decreases and comfort begins to increase, with this feeling prevailing, with no cases of discomfort or stress due to the cold being identified. It is common, depending on the time of year, for hours of heat stress between 10 to 19 UTC, more frequently from 15 to 17 UTC. Despite discomfort and heat stress, comfort conditions prevail in most hours of the day, with no case of discomfort due to cold being observed throughout the study period.