Developing an operational system to support tourism activities in Tuscany region

The climate of a region, together with its historical and geographical characteristics, is one of main factors considered by an individual tourist in planning a holiday to a specific region, and weather is one of the main factors affecting daily activities while on vacation. On the other side, climate data assumes a very important role in the activity of tourist planner and tour operators. The Laboratory for Meteorology and Environmental Modelling for the Tuscany region (LaMMA, operated by the Institute for Biometeorology-CNR; www.lamma.rete.toscana.it) currently issues a suite of products to provide the regional authorities with notice of environmental conditions: for the protection of people and property, and more generally to support and plan outside activities (tourism, agriculture, and so on). Such information varies from detailed classical weather forecasts, to the presentation of bio-meteorological indices (i.e. empirical indices, such as the Heat Index, the new Wind Chill Temperature Index, the UV index, and indices based on the energy balance ofhuman body, such as PMV and PET, to climatological data. In this paper some of these products, mainly based on elaborations performed by the Regional Atmospheric Modelling System (RAMS), operational at LaMMA, are shown.