Do Airports Have Their Own Climate?

Abstract

Sixty-four airport climate records were examined across Canada. Day-to-day (DTD) temperature variability metrics were used to assess the nature of the local environment. In total, 86% of the airports were assessed as peri-urban, reflective of either their location at the fringe of the urban centers or the creation of a peri-urban microclimate by the airport itself. The remaining nine stations were identified using a previously identified metric as marine, or “mountain”, a new category developed in this study. The analysis included a proposal for a decision flow chart to identify the nature of the local climate based on DTD thermal variability. An analysis of the peri-urban thermal metric and population indicated that a peri-urban climate was consistently identified for airports independent of the magnitude of the local population (or urbanization), lending support to the idea of a localized “airport” climate that matched peri-urban characteristics.