New York's planners regretted adding that extra building
I had two interesting discussions this morning.
First, at a breakfast event I was chatting to a lady from Connecticut about my forthcoming holiday in New York. She advised wearing warm clothes and I agreed, although said that it is around six degrees there right now, which is cold, but not brutal. She said that New York tends to amplify the cold because the buildings create a wind tunnel effect.
So anyway, I bought some gloves at lunchtime, but that’s not the point of this post.
Then on my way back from breakfast I was talking to a taxi driver about London’s winter (the classic, “Cold today”, “But not as cold as yesterday” conversation one has with strangers). His theory is that the City of London is a couple of degrees warmer than its outskirts, a feat he attributes to all the building and the electricity.
I don’t know if either theory stands up to scientific rigour. I’d be interested to hear though whether anyone knows whether town or city planning can actually affect the environment enjoyed by its citizens.
Tags: cold, hot, London, New York, science, scientific, weather, winter
December 8, 2011 at 12:02 am |
Yes. This is known as the “urban heat island” effect. Climate change deniers and propagandists have been presenting this real effect as an “explanation” for the warming planet. They claim all the thermometers located in urban environments show warmer temperatures, so that explains global warming without CO2. It’s complete bollocks of course but the biggest denialist website on the net – Wattsupwiththat.com – was entirely based on this one wrong, stupid idea
December 8, 2011 at 2:56 pm |
Yes, urban heat islands are a well established geographical fact and the sheltering and heat absorbing/re-radiating effects of buildings and the high energy consumption are both major causes.
December 8, 2011 at 10:31 pm |
Thanks David and Nick. That’s very informative and will henceforth be my interesting fact of the week.