Earlier tonight when I went to pick up my daughter I observed some
interesting urban heat island effects.
My home location is totally rural, an extensive agriculture area of
strawberry fields and ornamental greenhouses and is located
approximately 4.2 miles west of downtown. My hometown of Plant City has
a population in the city limits of 35,000 with a large and pronounced
urban center.
As I left home I had a temp. of 49 degrees with a calm wind. As I
entered town from the west the wind picked up from the west at 5 mph
with a temp of 58, one mile out of downtown.
I decided to check wind direction and speed entering downtown from the
south, east and north and you guessed it, a wind flow moving in from
rural areas towards downtown all the way around the compass. In the
heart of downtown the temp was 60 with a variable shifting wind of 8
mph.
Incidentally on the way home I found a temp. of 43 in a rural low spot
and 47 with a calm wind at my house.
Under radiational cooling conditions my location can be up to 15
degrees colder then downtown Tampa 23 miles to the west. One morning
back in December 1989 I had a low temp out here in hayseedville of 9,
while it was 23 in downtown Tampa and in January 1981 I had a low temp
of 4 with 19 in downtown Tampa.
Sincerely,
Thomas Giella Weather And Consulting Services
Plant City, Fl.
Main Weather Site URL-
http://kn4lf.tripod.com
Thomas Giella Weather Instrument Sales Site URL-
http://kn4lf.tripod.com/index-31.html
General Weather Forecast Site URL-
http://kn4lf.tripod.com/index-5.html
KN4LF Radio/SWL DX Site URL-
http://kn4lf.tripod.com/index-10.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Mar 09 2000 - 21:46:17 EST