“NEW YORK CITY’S HEAT ISLAND. Surface air temperatures elevated by at least 1°C have been observed in New York City for more than a century (Rosenthal et al. 2003; Gaffin et al. 2008), and the heat island signal, measured as the difference between the urban core and the surrounding rural surface air temperature readings taken at National Weather Service (NWS) stations, averages ~4°C on summer nights (Kirkpatrick and Shulman 1987; Gedzelman et al. 2003; Gaffin et al. 2008). The greatest temperature differences typically are sustained between midnight and 0500 Eastern Standard Time (EST; Gaffin et al.
2008).
Surface air temperature data from weather stations both in and around New York City were mapped to show the heat island at 0600 EST 14 August 2002, the early morning of what would become one of the
hottest heat-wave days that summer (Fig. 1). Within the city, the three NWS stations are located in Central Park, and at LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports. To improve coverage of New York City, data were
obtained from the WeatherBug network of automated private stations (AWS; online at www.aws. com/aws_2005/default.asp).4 Surface air temperature readings from these stations show that the city was several degrees warmer than the suburbs, and up to 8°C warmer than rural areas within 100 km of the city, with conditions that had been sustained
throughout the previous night.”
Back in 2010, I posted the following analysis on New York City power usage as it related to UHI.
DD More February 26, 2010
I could never understand how UHI was minimized. If you look at New York City as an example.
Area, including water 468.9 sq mi ( 2,590,000 sq m)
Power used (2008) 54,869 GW-hr
Clarifying the 80 percent used by buildings was for lighting and heat, so by next day at the same temperature it was all turned to waste heat.
So the calculation would be 54,869 GW-hr/year * 1.0 x 1.00E+09 W/GW / 8760 hr/yr = 6,263,584,475 W. that divided by 2,590,000 m^2 = 2418 W / m^2 each hour.
Watts/sq m = 2,416 total.
The Mayor says 80 percent is used by buildings and therefore 100 percent ends up as heat loss. The file also remarks that the city has seen a 23 percent increase in the last 10 years, which is close to the increase temps showing up in the charts.
So does 2,418 W/m^2 raise the temperature more than 100 ppm CO2?
Also I heard later that Reliability concerns require that 80% of the City’s peak load be met with in-City resources under a mandate from the New York State Reliability Council and the New York Independent System Operator. So the in-city power generation would have to include the 70% power to heat loss from this generation and all the waste heat from the few cars & trucks running around town.