“…Some previous studies suggested that urbanization could initiate and enhance convective activity and warm‐season rainfall over and downwind of the urban area (Burian & Shepherd, ; Hand & Shepherd, ; Kishtawal et al, ; W. Li et al, ; Lin et al, ; Mitra et al, ; Shem & Shepherd, ; Shepherd et al, ; Yang, Ren, & Yan, ). A number of physical mechanisms were proposed to explain the positive role of urbanization on convection and precipitation; these can be summarized as follows: (1) the urban heat island (UHI) effect (Bornstein & Lin, ; Dixon & Mote, ; Lin et al, ; Miao et al, ; Oke, ; Shem & Shepherd, ), (2) increased urban surface roughness (Baik et al, ; Lin et al, ; Shem & Shepherd, ; Thielenet al, ), (3) urban modification of the composition/structure of an approaching thunderstorm (Niyogi et al, ), and (4) increased urban aerosols enhance rainfall by invigorating convection as more latent heat is released by the formation of ice particles from smaller cloud drops (Fan et al, ; Khain et al, ; Rosenfeld et al, ).…”