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Science

Cities Create Weather 50

Posted by michael from the hawking-umbrellas dept.
NightEyes Decorum writes "Time is running a short piece on some research being conducted by meteorologists. While it's been known for a while that cities trap heat, research into the effect of this extra heat is only now just being studied. Apparently, some cities trap enough heat to actually create rainfall."
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Cities Create Weather More

Cities Create Weather

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  • no they don't (Score:3, Funny)

    by PeteyG ( 203921 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:11PM (#6637913) Homepage Journal
    GOD creates weather

  • Uh. Yeah. (Score:3, Funny)

    by moosesocks ( 264553 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:13PM (#6637944) Homepage
    I'm pretty sure that most people who work in a large city and live in the suburbs could tell you this.

    Hell. Has it ever NOT rained in London?

    • Try Dallas (Score:4, Funny)

      by BoomerSooner ( 308737 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:26PM (#6638116) Homepage Journal
      It's 8 degrees (F) warmer on average than Austin which is 3 hours to the south. "Dallas, a great place if you hate trees!" , the Dallas moto (well that and "Your hair can never be too big, and there is no such thing as too much make-up or plastic surgery")

      • Re:Try Dallas (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Pieroxy ( 222434 )
        Don't you think that would be because Austin is closer to the sea? Hmmm?
        • No it's because it's in the hills and it has significantly better usage of its environment. Ever been to Dallas? All concrete/asphalt, everywhere.

          Look at the government studies, Atlanta and Dallas are two of the worst areas for being hotter than their surrounding communities. Atlanta was the worst and I think it averaged 12 degrees (F) more where Dallas was 8 degrees (F) more on average. If you live in a warm area 106 is a hell of a lot hotter than 98.
    • Hell. Has it ever NOT rained in London?

      There is no way you would be saying this if you were actually in London at the moment. Wednesday was the hottest day ever recorded at 35.4C.
  • Welcome to Seattle, here's your bumbershoot.
    • funny that you say that since it really hasn't rained in months. Summers used to be very rainy and rather drab, but this year Seattle has been incredibly hot (for the Northwest at least). In fact, the whole year has been rather warm, winter hardly saw any rainfall and no snow (though a little did fall in the suburbs). Ah, when two man-made weather chaning forces collide.
  • ...is such a big and lively city that it creates rain for the whole of England, and Ireland too!

    Daniel

  • okay, then (Score:4, Funny)

    by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:16PM (#6637997)
    This is kinda like the Slashdot Effect, only with weather: Too much heat, and something falls down. :)
  • I mean, 'cmon people.

    Anyone whose ever lived in Texas can tell you about heat lightning and spontaneous storms after a few days of 100+ degree (F) weather.
    • This was pretty obvious when I visited Phoenix a few years ago. From a vantage point a few miles away you could see the turbulence crank up around mid-day and little patches of rainfall, most of which didn't reach the ground, as well as lightning.
      • The rain didn't reach the ground!? How did you know it was raining? How hot were these days? What was the humidity?
        • I've seen the effect before. The bottoms of the clouds get wispy when seen from a distance of a few miles, and in some cases, you can see the wisps reaching to the ground, which is how it looks when the rain actually hits. Sometimes the raindrops don't quite make it, and evaporate several hundred feet above the ground. If the wisps are long enough to reach the ground, driving for a few minutes may see you getting wet.
  • I guess it was movie night at the weather center. Last night's feature: Bladerunner . About time the meteorologists saw that one. Next up: Highlander 2 . I can just see the conversations the next morning.

    Meteorologist: Dude, if the ozone layer goes away, we'll just put up a big shield.
    Anchor Guy: That's unpossible.
    M: No way, man. I saw it on TV last night. It's true, just like big cities causing rain.
    AG: Please don't talk me.

    Yeah, OK, so in my imagination meteorologists are dumb dorks. Considerin

    • Or go work in Southern California. "Tomorrow? Sunny!"

      No, the meteorologists have it way easier in Canada.

      "Tomorrow? SNOW!"

      And they'd be right 90% of the time.
      • I'm guessing your trying to be funny, but did you know that a lot (most?) of Canada can reach temperatures of 35C during the summer, and -35C during the winter? Guess what, you laugh, but where I am, south SK, we have on average one of the highest temperature ranges in the world. It can get to be more than an 80 degree range (Celsius).

        • did you know that a lot (most?) of Canada can reach temperatures of 35C during the summer,

          Considering that I live in Edmonton, I am painfully aware of this. I threw in that 90% figure just to indicate how short the summers are, though.
          • This will probably be modded off-topic (and deservedly so) but my wife (as of about 32 hours ago) and I are headed there to spend a few days in the mall.

            Just glad we'll get to an Ikea (none here in Sask).

      • If only it were true...then tons of Americans could save face when they divulge their limited knowledge of Canada ;)

  • I've always suspected.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:46PM (#6638352) Homepage Journal
    ... that Portland was like this. This is not through scientific experimentation or anything, it's because it just felt like Portland was always raining when other places weren't. I can't believe meteorologists would just now be looking into that.

  • Some of us already knew that (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Captain Pedantic ( 531610 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @02:48PM (#6638380) Homepage
    Because we were reading when they previous covered this story [slashdot.org].

    Ok, so in the last three years this has gone from maybe to they do, but still, could you try to keep down the dupes?
  • If cities create their own weather, than perhaps the road construction altering albedo and redirecting heat-causing traffic might be to blame for the fact that the Chicago area has had storms severe enough to drop hail on us like 6 times since July 1st?

    I've seen more hail in about the past month than the previos 28 1/2 years of my life.
    • It's the Chicago Cubs. They're doing pretty well this year, perhaps dangerously close to serious pennant or even World Series contention.

      Considering the Cubs Curse [buzzle.com], the cosmic balance is out of whack this summer.

      Don't complain about the hail. You might be having to put up with blue suns and frog-plagues as they advance through the playoffs.
    • I forget the name of this effect, but it has to do with people only noticing things that are strange and different, and attributing causes to them. Mundane events that don't stand out and therefore are never attributed as causes.
  • Instead of all this speculation, shouldn't we go to the source? [buzzle.com]. When the Heat Miser takes Manhattan, there is sure to be a hot time on the old town tonight.

  • Hotlanta (Score:4, Interesting)

    by MacJedi ( 173 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @03:12PM (#6638665) Homepage
    Atlanta's Urban Heat Alters Weather Patterns [nasa.gov]

    /joeyo

    • Atlanta also creates thunderstorms that travel to the east. Augusta (a town 150 miles east of Atlanta) gets a number of midnight storms created by the heat from Atlanta. I've seen Doppler images of the Southeast US that are fairly clear, except for this string of thunder cells steadily moving east from Atlanta.
  • It has long been known that cities (large modern cities) effect the weather, and it has been proven that they cause rain many miles down wind from them. But it's good to see it publicly being studied.

    NarratorDan
  • This is not a new phenomena, I don't think. I can remember many times growing up near Atlanta when there'd be awful weather coming and all the TV reporters were telling us to hide in the basement, only to find that the line of storms divided and went around town.

    It's been my observation that no significant weather happens in Midtown, and little happens anywhere in the metro area. Except smog [wsbtv.com]
  • it's damn hot...so where the hell is all the rain!?

  • Yeah, it's called "San Francisco". (Score:3, Interesting)

    by MightyTribble ( 126109 ) on Thursday August 07, 2003 @10:06PM (#6641876)
    Honestly, you'll be in Oakland in clear blue skys, and you look across the bay and there's this big-ass black raincloud squatting over San Francisco.

    The place looks like Mordor some times, especially with that red blinkenlight on top of the pyramid tower thingy.
  • So it's not just a matter of wiping out all those butterflies in China that are causing hurricanes by flapping their wings. Now, if I want to end these unpredictable weather cycles, I've got to wipe out all the cities, too? Sheesh, the things I go through for meteorology.
  • Oddly, those old stories are partially correct. Snow levels inside most cities are down a lot. With all the energy we use (pretty much all of it ending up as waste heat, in winter), temperatures are at least a couple degrees warmer. In the city of Vancouver, we barely get any snow in the winter... but drive a few miles outside of town and you'll find a whole lot more (relatively).

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