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A lot of things are making everything including cities hotter. Here in Texas it was 110 at my house yesterday in September. I live way way way outside of a larg

A lot of things are making everything including cities hotter. Here in Texas it was 110 at my house yesterday in September. I live way way way outside of a large city. I personally think concrete/asphalt absorbs and retains a lot of heat keeping things hotter. If we could just reflect more back I think it'd help much more. I have solar on my house and it practically pays for my AC Bill.

stephen_g 3y ago
Concrete and asphalt definitely do absorb huge amounts of heat - it’s well studied and called the urban heat island effect.
- zo1 3y ago
  Do we know how much of that is causing global warming?
  - s0rce 3y ago
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31558-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31558-z
  - Solvency 3y ago
    Yeah. Read a book. https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Ground-Reverse-Climate-Ultimately/dp/1501170252 https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Ground-Reverse-Climate-Ultimatel...
  - stephen_g 3y ago
    Good link posted by s0rce in another reply, the authors' research seems to indicate the global effect is quite small, which tracks with what we might expect - it's a really big problem localised in cities because so much of the area around us is paved, but on a global scale the surface area of paved urban areas is not huge as a percentage of the surface of the earth.
- uoaei 3y ago
  Hotter air results from the hot concrete. Then the air has more capacity for holding water instead of precipitating it out as clouds or rain. This increases the likelihood of 100%RH conditions, in direct sunlight, on top of a huge thermal mass heated to way above body temps, making heat waves deadlier because evaporative cooling becomes moot at that humidity and you're essentially in desert conditions surrounded by hot rocks.
- xeromal 3y ago
  I had to leave vegas at 4am this summer. The city was 72 or so degrees but as soon as I was out maybe 5-10 minutes of driving, it was 50-60. Unbelievable.
SavageBeast 3y ago
Greetings Fellow Texan - I live in the downtown Austin area and I can second your conjecture that concrete and asphalt absorb heat. Here is a downtown weather station: https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/tx/austin/KTXAUSTI1820 https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/tx/austin/KTXAUSTI18... This site allows you to check various weather stations and see temps as recorded at the location. You can compare your location to others less or more urban and see this while its happening. Next time you're awake at 3AM with nothing to do check it out! Compare downtown Austin to the suburban area of your choice. I saw a 2-3 degree difference pretty regularly last I looked.

stephen_g 3y ago

Concrete and asphalt definitely do absorb huge amounts of heat - it’s well studied and called the urban heat island effect.

zo1 3y ago
Do we know how much of that is causing global warming?
- s0rce 3y ago
  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31558-z https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-31558-z
- Solvency 3y ago
  Yeah. Read a book. https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Ground-Reverse-Climate-Ultimately/dp/1501170252 https://www.amazon.com/Kiss-Ground-Reverse-Climate-Ultimatel...
- stephen_g 3y ago
  Good link posted by s0rce in another reply, the authors' research seems to indicate the global effect is quite small, which tracks with what we might expect - it's a really big problem localised in cities because so much of the area around us is paved, but on a global scale the surface area of paved urban areas is not huge as a percentage of the surface of the earth.
uoaei 3y ago
Hotter air results from the hot concrete. Then the air has more capacity for holding water instead of precipitating it out as clouds or rain. This increases the likelihood of 100%RH conditions, in direct sunlight, on top of a huge thermal mass heated to way above body temps, making heat waves deadlier because evaporative cooling becomes moot at that humidity and you're essentially in desert conditions surrounded by hot rocks.
xeromal 3y ago
I had to leave vegas at 4am this summer. The city was 72 or so degrees but as soon as I was out maybe 5-10 minutes of driving, it was 50-60. Unbelievable.

SavageBeast 3y ago

Greetings Fellow Texan - I live in the downtown Austin area and I can second your conjecture that concrete and asphalt absorb heat. Here is a downtown weather station: https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/tx/austin/KTXAUSTI1820 https://www.wunderground.com/weather/us/tx/austin/KTXAUSTI18... This site allows you to check various weather stations and see temps as recorded at the location. You can compare your location to others less or more urban and see this while its happening. Next time you're awake at 3AM with nothing to do check it out! Compare downtown Austin to the suburban area of your choice. I saw a 2-3 degree difference pretty regularly last I looked.