Urban Rainfall Effect on Coastal Cities

  • Released Tuesday, December 9, 2003
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Cities tend to be 1-10 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than surrounding areas. The added heat destabilizes and changes air circulation around cities. During the warmer months, the added heat creates wind circulations and rising air that produces new clouds enhances existing ones. Under the right conditions, these clouds evolve into rain-producers or storms. Scientists suspect that converging air due to city surfaces of varying heights, like buildings, also promotes rising air needed to produce clouds and rainfall.

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Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab

This page was originally published on Tuesday, December 9, 2003.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, May 3, 2023 at 1:56 PM EDT.