Urban influences on surface temperatures in the southwestern United States during recent decades.

Abstract

Trends of surface temperature at rapidly growing urban sites during the last three to five decades are compared to those at non-urban sites, temperatures at 70 kPa, and sea surface temperature at a coastal Pacific station. Significant urban heat island effects have apparently taken hold, with urban-affected temperature increases of 1 to 2oC common over this period. In contrast, the trend of the non-urban records has been distinctly smaller over this period. -from Authors Scripps Inst. of Oceanography, Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.