URBAN HEAT ISLAND: Microclimates: What is microclimatology? Microclimatology is the study of climate over a small area.

It includes changes resulting from the construction of large urban centres as well as those existing naturally between different types of land surfaces, e.g. forests and lakes. Urban climates: Large cities and conurbations experience climatic conditions that differ from those of the surrounding countryside. They generates more dust and condensation nuclei than natural environments; they create heat, they alter chemical composition and the moisture content of the air above them; and they affect both albedo and the flow of the air. Urban heat have distinctive climates. 1. Temperature: Explain differences between temperature in rural and urban areas. Climate differences between rural and urban areas Much heat is stored during daytime (high thermal capacity) by buildings; dark coloured roofs, concrete or brick walls and tarmac roads and releasing slowly during the night. Further heat is obtained from car fumes, factories, power stations, central heating and people themselves. Urban heat-under calm conditions, temperatures are highest in the more buildup city centre and decrease towards the suburbs and open countryside. In urban areas; a. daytime temperatures are on average, 0.6C higher b. night-time temperatures may be 3 or 4C higher as dust and cloud act like a blanket to reduce radiation and buildings give out heat like storage radiators c. the mean winter temperature is 1 to 2C higher (rural areas are even colder when snow-covered as this increases their albedo) d. The mean summer temperature may be 5C higher e. The mean annual temperature is higher by between 0.6C. In Chicago and 1.3C in London compared with that of the surrounding area. 2. Sunlight Despite having higher mean temperatures, cities receive less sunshine and more cloud than their rural counterparts. Dust and other particles may absorb and reflect as much as 50% of insolation in winter, when the sun is low in the sky and has to pass through more atmosphere, and 5% in summer. High-rise buildings also block out light.

3. Wind Wind velocity is reduced by buildings which create friction and act as windbreaks. Urban mean annual velocities may be up to 30% lower than in rural areas and periods of calm may be 10-20 per cent more frequent. In contrast, high-rise buildings, such as the skyscrapers of New York and Hongkong form canyons through which wind may be chanelled. These winds may be strong enough to cause tall buildings to sway and pedestrians to be blown over and troubled by dust and litter. It also generates considerable small scale turbulence and eddies. 4. Relative humidity Relative humidity is up to 6% lower in urban areas where the warmer air can hold more moisture and where the lack of vegetation and water surface limits evapotranspiration. 5. Cloud Urban areas tend to receive thicker and up to 10% more frequent cloud cover than rural areas. This may result from convection currents generated by the higher temperatures and the presence of a larger number of condensation nuclei. 6. Precipitation the mean annual precipitation total and the number of days with less than 5 mm of rainfall are both between 5 and 15% greater in major urban areas. Reasons for this are the same as for cloud formation. Strong thermals increase the likelihood of thunder by 25% and the occurrence of hail by up to 400 %. The higher urban temperatures may turn the snow of rural areas into sleet and limit, by up to 15%, the number of days with snow lying on the ground. On the otherhand, the frequency, length and intensity of fog, especially under anticyclonic conditions, is much greater-there may up to 100% more in winter and 25% more in summer, caused by the concentration of condensation nuclei. 7. Atmospheric composition There may be three to seven times more dust particles over a city than in rural areas. Large quantities of gaseous and solid impurities are emitted into urban skies by burning of fossil fuels, by industrial processes and from car exhausts. Urban areas may have up to 200 times more sulphur dioxide and 10times more nitrogen oxide (major components of acid rain) than rural areas, as well as 10 times more hydrocarbons and twice as much carbon dioxide. These pollutants tend to increase cloud cover and precipitation, cause smog give higher temperatures and reduce sunlight. Forest and lake microclimates. Different land surfaces produce distinctive local climates. (refer p 243)