TY - JOUR
T1 - Heatwaves and urban heat islands
T2 - A comparative analysis of multiple cities
AU - Ramamurthy, P.
AU - Bou-Zeid, Elie R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The work was partly supported by the Department of Defense Army Research Office under grant W911NF-15-1-0526 and by the US National Science Foundation’s Sustainability Research Network Cooperative Agreement 1444758. The simulations were per formed on Yellowstone super computer at the National Center For atmospheric research (P36861020). Both the data and input files necessary to reproduce the experiments with WRF are available from the authors upon request. It will be made available in the PI’s webserver at ufo.ccny.cuny.edu.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2017/1/16
Y1 - 2017/1/16
N2 - The recent International Panel on Climate Change report predicts the highly urbanized Northeastern U.S. to be at high risk to heat waves. Since urban residents and infrastructure are known to be highly vulnerable to extreme heat, the goal of this paper is to understand the interaction between the synoptic-scale heat wave and the city-scale urban heat island (UHI) effects. The study also qualitatively analyzes the primary factors that contribute to UHIs by comparing their intensities in different cities with distinct geo-physical characteristics. Our results, generated by using the Weather Research and Forecasting model augmented with advanced urban surface parameterizations, confirm that the amplitude of UHI is related to the physical size of the city. However, the results suggest that cities of comparabale sizes might interact differently with heat waves: in New York City; Washington, DC; and Baltimore (but not in Philadelphia) the regular UHI was amplified more strongly during heat waves compared to smaller cities. The results also establish that the pattern of UHI in different cities, its variability, and its interaction with heat waves are inherently linked to dynamic factors.
AB - The recent International Panel on Climate Change report predicts the highly urbanized Northeastern U.S. to be at high risk to heat waves. Since urban residents and infrastructure are known to be highly vulnerable to extreme heat, the goal of this paper is to understand the interaction between the synoptic-scale heat wave and the city-scale urban heat island (UHI) effects. The study also qualitatively analyzes the primary factors that contribute to UHIs by comparing their intensities in different cities with distinct geo-physical characteristics. Our results, generated by using the Weather Research and Forecasting model augmented with advanced urban surface parameterizations, confirm that the amplitude of UHI is related to the physical size of the city. However, the results suggest that cities of comparabale sizes might interact differently with heat waves: in New York City; Washington, DC; and Baltimore (but not in Philadelphia) the regular UHI was amplified more strongly during heat waves compared to smaller cities. The results also establish that the pattern of UHI in different cities, its variability, and its interaction with heat waves are inherently linked to dynamic factors.
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U2 - 10.1002/2016JD025357
DO - 10.1002/2016JD025357
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85010676940
SN - 0148-0227
VL - 122
SP - 168
EP - 178
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research
IS - 1
ER -