Urban heat soars this summer

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Leslie Hudson was live from Orlando, Florida, on July 31 with more on urban heat's impact this summer.

Transcript

00:00Of course, we have been dealing with this heat all week long. It's just a matter of where you are, how long you felt it.

00:06And for the eastern part of the country over the past week, we have been dealing with a record shattered.

00:12There is really two dozen triple-digit temperature records.

00:16And depending on where you live, some places are getting hotter and faster.

00:21AccuWeathers' Leslie Hudson joins us live from downtown Orlando, Florida to help explain what the weather phenomena is

00:28and what cities are doing to cool things way down.

00:31And there's a reason that Leslie joins us in the morning.

00:34She doesn't want to be in that heat in Orlando this afternoon. Right, Leslie?

00:41Oh, I don't know, Bernie. I think that AccuWeather Real Phil is probably flirting with 100 already.

00:46But yes, I definitely don't want to be in the 110s later today.

00:50So I will happily do the morning lives with you guys.

00:53And I love working with you anyways.

00:54But if you've ever stepped outside in a city like Orlando or another major metro city and you've wondered,

01:00hey, it feels hotter here than just somewhere down the road, you're right.

01:03And that phenomena is called the urban heat island effect.

01:07And cities like Orlando or big metro cities like New York City or Boston or Dallas,

01:13those areas can be anywhere from 10 to 15 degrees warmer than their neighbors just down the road in some rural spots.

01:21And that's all thanks to asphalt and buildings and lack of trees.

01:26And it can be a big problem when we're under these big heat waves and a heat dome like we've seen.

01:31There's been over two dozen heat records broken across the country that were in the triple digits just this last week.

01:37And they were major cities as well.

01:40So that urban heat effect can be more intense and last longer when we're under these heat waves or heat domes.

01:47Now, the urban heat island effect is a real measurable temperature difference between that concrete-covered cities

01:53and their rural, greener counterparts, their neighbors.

01:58But during those heat domes or that heat wave, that temperature gap widens.

02:02So pavements, rooftops, and buildings soak up all of that heat throughout the day.

02:07And it releases at a slower rate at night, which keeps that heat kind of locked in into that pavement.

02:14So that's what helps it be more significant at night.

02:17If you've noticed when you've been out at a city and you're like, you're enjoying some dinner in the evening

02:21or you're going to a movie and you're like, whoa, it's really hot.

02:23Well, that's because that daytime heating kind of got locked into all of those buildings that are around you.

02:28To combat the urban heat islands, several big cities are investing in urban forestry

02:34and heat mapping to track the city's hottest neighborhoods

02:36and planning long-term cooling strategies in places like Dallas or Louisville, Kentucky,

02:41or even in Newark, New Jersey.

02:43Officials are taking the heat seriously.

02:45Several cities are mapping tree cover and using federal funds to cool down block by block.

02:51We talked to AccuWeather climate expert, Brett Anderson,

02:54and here's what he had to say about the urban heat island effect.

02:58The city traps heat much more effectively than the suburbs or rural areas.

03:05Basically, it's the buildings, the blacktop, concrete.

03:09All those surfaces absorb heat much more than grass and other areas outside the city.

03:17And so that heat gets trapped in the city because you have all these buildings.

03:20And it just continues to radiate all that heat towards the surface.

03:25And there's very little way for that heat to escape out.

03:32Now, the detrimental impacts from the urban heat islands are multi-pronged.

03:37It's not just the fact that it feels hotter.

03:40It also really taxes the energy grid systems in these major cities.

03:45So the additional heat from the urban heat island increases electricity bills,

03:49which disproportionately can impact lower-income families

03:52that oftentimes are living just outside these major metro cities.

03:56There are tangible solutions, and several cities are implementing, as I mentioned.

04:00The goal for many of these cities is to try and plant as many trees as they can,

04:04which is hard to do on a concrete landscape.

04:06But some of the cities are doing that.

04:08They're also changing the roofing.

04:10They're changing them to more green-type roofs or white roofs,

04:13as opposed to black roofs, which will absorb more heat.

04:16They're encouraging the public to use transit systems,

04:18use cleaner energy sources.

04:20And if you live near a city like this here in Orlando,

04:24you can actually help by planting more trees in your area

04:27to help create more tree canopies that will help limit some of that heat

04:32from getting trapped in the big metro areas.

04:36Reporting live from downtown Orlando, I'm Leslie Hudson.

04:39Back to you.

04:40Leslie, always interesting the stuff they do.

04:41The Valley of the Sun, they paint the pavement with that.

04:44Yeah, I feel like Orlando needs to, Florida needs to pick up on that,

04:48because they get even more sun than Arizona.

04:51And they have the humidity, obviously.

04:53All right.

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