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Research / Urban Climate

Which local climate differences matter for people living in a city?

The atmosphere close to the ground connects northern urban heat islands, warm nights and the design of useful local information.

Four panels showing winter land-surface-temperature anomalies around Apatity
Winter surface-temperature anomalies in Apatity. Varentsov et al. (2018), Fig. 6, CC BY 4.0. Research context ↗

Separate urban effects from the landscape

In our Apatity study, with Mikhail Varentsov as first author alongside Pavel Konstantinov, Alexander Baklanov, Igor Esau and Victoria Miles, observations and model experiments distinguished human heat sources from the effects of terrain. That distinction matters when interpreting an urban–rural temperature comparison.

Warm nights and local exposure

A daily maximum is only one part of heat exposure. My work on day/night warming connects the depth of the boundary layer to temperature response. The warm-night explorer lets visitors examine sustained periods of warm nights across Europe using ERA5-Land. The maps describe conditions at the ERA5-Land grid scale.

From a physical mechanism to a practical question

Surface moisture, vegetation, building form and the surrounding topography affect local conditions in different ways. I want the evidence behind a climate map to remain visible: what was observed, what was modelled and what spatial scale the result can support.

Research record

Key papers

From evidence to exploration

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