Gaps and linkages between biometeorological research across the Global South: a call for new efforts to advance biometeorology in the Global South.

Biometeorology research continues to grow and accelerate in terms of productivity (papers produced, studies conducted, etc.) as well as its direct impact on society and policy. Simultaneously, the scientific community is increasingly acknowledging that research has predominantly focused on the Global North. Additionally, work conducted in the Global South often follows extractive practices that primarily advance the careers and scientific knowledge of researchers from the Global North, offering minimal benefit to the communities studied in the Global South. This short communication intends to serve as a call to the biometeorology community to work collaboratively across continents to understand the current knowledge of biometeorology research in the Global South in addition to identifying the gaps, challenges, and opportunities of conducting grounded research in the Global South led by Global South researchers to support societies equitably.

Quantifying climatic suitability for tourism in Southwest Indian Ocean Tropical Islands: Applying the Holiday Climate Index to Réunion Island.

Climate is a key resource for tourists and tourism providers. Varied approaches to quantifying climate resources for tourism have been developed in the last 40 years, computing indices from a range of meteorological variables to measure the comparative climatic suitability of different destinations through time. This study provides the first application of a tourism climate index in the tropical southwest Indian Ocean, applying the recently developed Holiday Climate Index (HCI) for Réunion Island. The suitability of this index is evaluated for the case of this French department, with a particular focus on air conditioning availability in tourism accommodation establishments as this index excludes night-time thermal comfort. Both iterations of the HCI (HCIBeach and HCIUrban) are computed with meteorological data from Roland Garros Airport for the period 1991-2020, exploring monthly, annual, and seasonal climatic suitability. Mean monthly HCI scores reveal considerable seasonality in climatic suitability for tourism on the island with scores ranging from 89.3 ('excellent') to 36.9 ('marginal') for the HCIBeach and 85.0 ('excellent') to 27.5 ('unacceptable') for the HCIUrban, with more favourable scores calculated for July and August, displaying a clear austral winter peak seasonal classification. Over the 30-year period, there is no statically significant change in mean annual climatic suitability, and at a monthly scale, only one month of the year for each index displays statistically significant trends. These results are important in informing tourism strategies for the island to maximise visitor satisfaction through targeting advertising more deliberately for peak touristic climate suitability during the winter months.