Cities getting hotter, faster
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COMMENTS 
With the summer sun baking the earth and cities growing in number, hot cities will grow even hotter, says a new British study
It is known that cities retain more heat than rural areas, and the findings of a latest British study suggests that increasing temperatures in urban areas will take a toll on the comfort and health of people who live in cities around the world, especially those who don’t have access to air-conditioning.
“If you’ve been exposed to hot temperatures during the day and you expect relief over night, that becomes increasingly difficult as temperatures at night get warmer. We have to prepare to live in a warmer world,” Discovery News quoted Richard Betts, a climate scientist at the UK’s Met Office, as saying.
In a concrete jungle, roads and buildings absorb sunlight and trap heat which also flows as waste out of cars, air-conditioning units and even just the breathing of millions of people crammed into a busy grid of streets. Thus, cities create their own warmer microclimates -- a phenomenon called the ‘urban heat island effect’.
In the Middle East, where the effect will likely be most extreme, the study predicted that CO2 emissions will lead to a night-time rise of about 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit both inside and outside of cities, with an extra 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit rise within city limits.
Among other places, nights will get significantly warmer in urban areas of Central Asia, East Africa and the western United States.
Source: Hindustan Times, June 24, 2010
CBC News, June 24, 2010