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by nomilk 25 days ago
Wonder how much the removal of trees and bitumening/concreting of surface areas contributes to radiative heating from the sun which then increases the temp of surrounding air, especially on still days.
2 comments

The Houston metroplex might be one of the best domestic examples of the urban heat island effect. They've got their own entire website about it. If you overlay the daily temperature curve of 77002 with any zip outside the beltway, the difference is incredible. The increased HVAC demand further compounds everything. Downtown Houston is truly hell during the hottest summer months. It can be 4am and your ac condenser will still be throwing the high pressure cutout switch.

https://www.h3at.org/

The sattelite feed I use has an infrared channel, and Houston's ring and web road structure stands out from geocyncronous orbit, whereas Mexico city is invisible, hot but not like the heat island effect of what must be one of the greatest amounts of concrete on the planet.

https://weather.ndc.nasa.gov/goes/

In this specific case, the city is essentially bordering a desert.