Urban Meteorology and Climatology

Urban areas tend to form their own weather and climate that significantly relates to effects of buildings, paved surfaces and materials, the water landscape, and emissions of waste heat and pollution into the atmosphere by industry, transportation systems, and human metabolism. A city gives rise to regional and local urban heat islands, altered river flows, changes in precipitation and humidity, elevated pollution levels, and altered airflow within, over, and across the built landscape. A myriad of microenvironments and microclimates exist across a metropolitan region as a result. These differences are important for a number of reasons, among them the fact that populations are increasingly moving to and living in cities, and the fact that there are several impacts of these changes that affect communities, businesses, urban planning, transportation systems, public health, energy and water use, security, and emergency responses. It is well known that cities have altered the atmosphere, producing changes in air temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind flow, sunshine, and pollution levels. A first formal study is Luke Howard’s The Climate of London. Since the 19th century, several developments led to modern-day practices and applications by urban meteorologists and climatologists. These are outlined in a seminal book Urban Climates and include four periods: (a) prior to 1930, pioneering climatographies of selected cities and weather elements, (b) 1930–1965, growth of micro- and local climatology, (c) 1965–2000, rapid increase in research with links to meteorology and physically based models, and (d) in the 21st century, the maturing of urban meteorology and climatology into a predictive science is occurring. This selective article cites literature on various areas of urban meteorology and climatology. The books, reports, and articles that are listed, with some exceptions, are recent ones. The maturing phase has created an enormous literature from many related disciplines focusing on urban weather and climate. Not every aspect is covered in detail, but books and references will lead to uncovering the vast literature related to this subject. Although it is a selective bibliography, certainly further in-depth searches, it is hoped, can be made by the reader.