City Grids Intensify the Urban Heat Island Effect
By comparing buildings to water molecules, researchers found that the form of a city can intensify the urban heat island effect. In 1995, an unbearable heatwave in Chicago, with temperatures reaching above 100 degrees, killed an estimated 739 people. The extreme heat was in part a consequence of the urban heat island effect, which makes downtown areas ostensibly warmer than their surrounding suburban and rural areas. The difference is even starker at night: even as the temperature cools, the release of heat absorbed during the day by asphalt and densely…
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