Ding, Mingze;
Zheng, Xiao‐Tong;
Li, Dan;
Sun, Ting;
(2025)
Background Wind Speeds Outweigh Urban Heat Islands in Downwind Precipitation Enhancement by Cities.
Geophysical Research Letters
, 52
(12)
, Article e2024GL114142. 10.1029/2024GL114142.
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Abstract
Ample evidence shows that cities can enhance precipitation in the downwind region due to the urban heat island (UHI) effect and the high momentum roughness of urban land. Surprisingly, global observational results show that the downwind enhancement of precipitation caused by large metropolitan areas is weaker under conditions of stronger surface UHIs. This is because stronger UHIs tend to be associated with lower background wind speeds, while the downwind enhancement of precipitation is stronger with higher background wind speeds. These results suggest a competition between thermodynamic and dynamic factors in regulating the downwind enhancement of precipitation, with the background wind speed playing a more important role than the UHI effect. By considering the urban-rural difference in momentum roughness length, a simple model is utilized to qualitatively explain the link between the downwind enhancement of precipitation and background wind speed.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Background Wind Speeds Outweigh Urban Heat Islands in Downwind Precipitation Enhancement by Cities |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2024GL114142 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL114142 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s), 2025. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
| Keywords: | urban climate, precipitation, remote sensing |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10209871 |
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