Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Buildings, concretes, cars, high population density, etc tends to hold in heat better than rural areas, particularly on clear nights. When I lived in North GA, I lived in a town 50 miles north of Atlanta in a rural area. On clear nights, sometimes it would be as much as 10-15 F cooler than it was in Downtown. A more normal difference is about 5-8 F cooler though.
To answer your question, no. You won't find a large city that doesn't have a UHI effect.
So having a big, urban city with lots of residents, alone, somehow contributes to global warming?
It contributes to warmer nighttime temps. I would assume the fact that there's far more urban areas now than there was 50 years ago could be a contributor to seeing warmer temps globally. Not the only contributor though.
Buildings, concretes, cars, high population density, etc tends to hold in heat better than rural areas, particularly on clear nights. When I lived in North GA, I lived in a town 50 miles north of Atlanta in a rural area. On clear nights, sometimes it would be as much as 10-15 F cooler than it was in Downtown. A more normal difference is about 5-8 F cooler though.
To answer your question, no. You won't find a large city that doesn't have a UHI effect.
being 50 miles north of Atlanta, you were probably at a higher elevation + you know, being further north... might have accounted for some of that difference...
being 50 miles north of Atlanta, you were probably at a higher elevation + you know, being further north... might have accounted for some of that difference...
The difference was noticeable anywhere in the rural areas around Atlanta though. I lived 30 miles south of Atlanta as well (in Henry Co.) and it was 5 F cooler on most nights as well. Atlanta definitely has a big UHI effect.
Where I lived north of Atlanta was only 150 ft higher in elevation, where I lived south of Atlanta was about 100 ft lower. Elevation or latitude wasn't the difference.
Next, here's Westhampton (FOK), 60 miles to the east and not affected by UHI. Notice how it appears that all of the lows are shifted 10F down from the previous graph, while highs remain the same. Also notice how the first freeze occurs more than a month earlier than LaGuardia and similarly the last freeze occurs more than a month later.
What if the big city had a very low population density and was very spacious? Would that make it less likely to have warmer nighttime temps?
Maybe a little but it would still depend on the extent of the development and the amount of concrete vs soil.
If you really want to eliminate UHI, then just introduce some wind into the climate in question. High winds always uniformize the temperatures in a given area. Therefore UHI is only prominent on windless nights with low cloud cover.
The difference was noticeable anywhere in the rural areas around Atlanta though. I lived 30 miles south of Atlanta as well (in Henry Co.) and it was 5 F cooler on most nights as well. Atlanta definitely has a big UHI effect.
Where I lived north of Atlanta was only 150 ft higher in elevation, where I lived south of Atlanta was about 100 ft lower. Elevation or latitude wasn't the difference.
i understand what you are saying, and Atlanta is a great example of UHI, but elevation does make a difference. along with other variables could take up as much as 20-30% of the difference...
-200 ft, +1°F...
+200 ft, -1°F...
50 miles north, -2°F...
30 miles south, +1°F.
Last edited by Sir Goosenseresworthie; 09-02-2015 at 10:43 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
