Are Airports colder than cities? (hottest, warm, record, temperatures)

[The Grandeur]

The tittle should have been ''how generally are airports colder than cities on daily means at smilar elevation?''

I tried to change the tittle but it doesn't change. So the tittle is what I wrote above.


The only airport in Turkey with long term coldest month and hottest month daily mean temp information given by Turkish State Met Service is EsenboÄŸa Airport in Ankara.


EsenboÄŸa Airport Station: 959 meters

Ankara City Station: 891 meters

(Elevation Difference is only 68 meters)


Coldest month daily mean:

EsenboÄŸa Airport Station: -1.5*C

Ankara City Station: +0.6*C

(Airport has 2.1*C colder long term daily mean in coldest month)


Hottest month daily mean:

EsenboÄŸa Airport Station: +21.8*C

Ankara City Station: +23.5*C

(Airport has 1.7*C colder long term daily mean in hottest month)


Coldest month and Hottest month daily mean temps used here are not 1991-2020

https://www.mgm.gov.tr/iklim/iklim-s...spx?m=ESENBOGA

https://www.mgm.gov.tr/iklim/iklim-s...dirmalari.aspx

[Hemlock140]

The large acreage of tarmac and runways will absorb the heat from any sun and warm the airport. It's like on a hot sunny day when we go to Costco and get out of the car in the parking lot and it's much warmer than at home. I would suspect that on a cloudy winter day the airport would be the same as surrounding city. Right now it's overcast with some drizzle, and our nearest airport (Seatac) is at 47F, while in Seattle it's also 47F.

[Thealpinist]

Airports are generally warmer and tend to be in suspect locations.

[Mhc1985]

How is it surprising? It's due to the UHI.
Airports are usually in very open areas.
Weather stations from urban observatories are in the middle of massively built areas.

There are exceptions of course, such as high traffic, very large, asphalt-filled airports which throughout the decades ended up being surrounded by the metro area they serve, in contrast with urban observatories that happen to be located in large parks.

[Veritas Vincit]

It depends on the specifics of the location of the weather station. There's rules, but they aren't as stringent as one may think. I remember a couple years back when the all-time heat record for Germany was broken and it turned out the station was in a location where hot air would definitely pool, but it was found to be within the rules anyway.



There's elements of an airport that could make it colder than core residential areas of the city, it might be well outside the city in the surrounding colder countryside, it might even be at a higher elevation, it might be in an extremely exposed open setting. There's examples of that. In fact, it's probably the more common scenario.


But on the flip side there's also factors that could make it warmer. The station could be very close to a heat-generating building, aircraft generate a lot of heat as well, on sunny days the the wide open massive concrete space can have heat reinforcing effects as well.


The D.C. area has both. Dulles airport is 20+ miles outside the city and usually a bit colder than the city itself, Reagan airport is right adjacent to the urban core and typically a fair bit warmer than Dulles. To add a layer of complexity, there's been suspicion for many years that the data produced by the station at Reagan airport is prone to inaccuracy and running too warm and that perhaps it's not the location but the equipment that's at fault.

[greysrigging]

Airports and City site differences are all about the old real estate jargon 'Location, Location, Location'.
In AU, Airport sites are generally warmer re max temps and cooler re min temps. 'Topography, Topography, Topography'...
There are a few exceptions ie Adelaide, Brisbane and Townsville Airports are closer to the coast.

[greysrigging]

Classic Town V Airport differences at Albany, WA:

Town ( on the coast )


Airport ( 10klm inland ):

[Mhc1985]

Flat areas are warmer during the daytime and colder during the nighttime, so they are irrelevant for the premise, which focuses on mean temperatures. UHI is conceptually straightforward. A station in the middle of a very built area is hotter than a station in the middle of nowhere.

If most airports in Australia are hotter than their corresponding urban observatories, then it must be linked to a very specific and repeated pattern in the location of the cities and their airports, like the city being very affected by cool ocean waters while the airports being located far from the sea, or just that the city/town observatory being very suburban on their own.

For instance, not a single Airport station in Argentina is warmer than the station located in the city proper, despite the very diverse geography involved throughout the country. Only exceptions are Jujuy and Mendoza. In case of Jujuy, the AP is at 900 m and most of the city occurs above 1100 m. In case of Mendoza, the AP is at 700 m and somewhat invaded by the metro area, while the Observatory is at 830 m in a very large park. So, both exceptions were already covered.

[Star691]

Still depends on the exact location of the airport. Many airports in the US are located on the outskirts of the cities, therefore could be 1-2 degrees colder than the city center.

[ryankong2010]

what about like Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport?