This Is What An Urban Heat Island Looks Like
Hot Hot Heat Island Nickolay Lamm, StorageFront.com Summertime in the city. Ugh, New York City, you sweaty mess. Summer in New York City, bless its big, appley urban heart, can be miserable. The city is basically a floating oven. Urban heat islands, New York among them, are metropolitan areas that--due to fewer trees and more dark, heat-holding pavement--are much hotter than surrounding rural areas. The average difference between surface temperatures in a developed versus a rural area is 18 to 27 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the EPA. On a hot summer day in the city, dry surfaces like pavements and roofs can be up to 90 degrees hotter than the air temperature! And when the heat gets trapped in the atmosphere, the city doesn't cool off at night--heat from the urban infrastructure continues to be released in the air, making it even hotter after sunset. Yay, humans, making the world...