Urban impacts on air temperature and precipitation over The Netherlands

Abstract

The detection of changes in the weather of urban areas is an important issue for understanding the impact of weather on human lives. Five years of basic weather observations (2011−2015) from automatic and amateur networks across The Netherlands were used to investigate the urban effects on meteorological parameters with a focus on temperature (e.g. urban heat island [UHI]) and precipitation. Representative stations were selected based on metadata and a set of criteria for data quality control. An hourly analysis indicates that UHIs are a nocturnal phenomenon in The Netherlands and are more prominent after sunset, when they exceed 2°C. A seasonal analysis shows that UHIs occur in all seasons during the year, with the most significant UHI occurring in the summer. Furthermore, the differences in the precipitation of urban and rural areas were shown to be greatest after sunrise during the day. The maximum hourly UHI and hourly precipitation distributions were analyzed using a generalized extreme value model. The occurrences of maximum precipitation are likely to be more frequent at urban stations than at the nearby rural stations. Additionally, the distinct seasonal cycle of precipitation that is dependent on the UHI demonstrates that the maximum UHI and precipitation occurred in the summer. Our results indicate that the UHI and precipitation enhancements in Dutch urban residential areas, as obtained from the data of weather amateurs, are in agreement with the results presented in the literature, and that 7% more precipitation occurs in cities than in rural areas.

Precipitation extremes over the Netherlands : changes due to climate and urbanization

“…Extreme precipitation events are further found to be most strongly affected by urban land use in the summer months, especially August, and under the urban type classified as W9, among others. The UHI has been found to be higher in August than in other months in the Netherlands (Rahimpour et al, 2018;Wolters and Brandsma, 2012). The higher extreme precipitation in August is in accordance with the findings of previous Dutch studies on precipitation frequency during days where convection plays a relatively important role and maxima occur during the evening and near sunset (Overeem, 2009).…”

“…They found that the influence of the urban land-use type on precipitation is not negligible, and it caused an increase in precipitation by 7-8% in this decade for the Netherlands. Moreover, a similar result was found by Rahimpour et al (2018) for hourly extreme precipitation at local urban stations when compared to nearby rural stations. These studies emphasize that variations in extreme precipitation may also occur due to urbanisation and human activities that impact regional and local climates.…”

“…The higher extreme precipitation in August is in accordance with the findings of previous Dutch studies on precipitation frequency during days where convection plays a relatively important role and maxima occur during the evening and near sunset (Overeem, 2009). Intense precipitation may be caused by increases in the strength of convection due to intensive UHI (Chen et al, 2015;Rahimpour et al, 2018;Yang et al, 2017). The temperature discrepancy between urban and non-urban areas enhances instability and convective activity over areas downwind from urbanised areas (Lin and Chen, 2011).…”

“…The low SST and the air travelling from the coast over the land could suppress shower activity in the spring season over the Dutch coast, which contains the most urbanised areas in the country (Daniels et al, 2015a). The largest estimations in August might be due to the higher temperature discrepancy between the urban and non-urban areas (i.e., UHI increases lead to enhanced convection) (Overeem, 2009;Rahimpour et al, 2018;Wolters and Brandsma, 2012). The relatively high precipitation downwind of urban areas might be triggered by the higher temperature in urban areas than in non-urban areas (due to the UHI circulation) and moist convection under favourable atmospheric conditions (Han et al, 2014).…”

Study of temporal variations of nocturnal and daytime urban heat island in Baghdad

“…There is a discrepancy in difference of UHI intensity between summer and winter. Most studies reported that less UHI was in winter (Oke, 1976;Wilby, 2003;Golroudbary, Zeng, Mannaerts & Su, 2018), while others showed that most winter UHIs were more intense than summer UHIs (Souch & Grimmond, 2006;Sailor, 2006;Schatz & Kucharik, 2014). Thus, this gap in determining which season has most intense UHI requires a careful analysis that will be useful in assessing the potential implications described above.…”