Employing an urban meteorological network to monitor air temperature conditions in the ‘local climate zones’ of Szeged, Hungary

Abstract

ABSTRACTWe analyse the average annual and seasonal air temperature conditions in the ‘local climate zones’ (LCZs) of Szeged, Hungary. The basis of our analysis is a 1‐year dataset from 2014 to 2015 for a 20‐station urban meteorological network. The network and its corresponding LCZ classes put temperature studies in Szeged into a new spatial framework to assess local climate and urban heat island (UHI) conditions. The stations were installed at locally representative sites using a Geographic Information System (GIS) method based on the standard surface parameters of the LCZ classification. The network was purposely designed to monitor thermal differences among LCZ classes in Szeged. We provide detailed site metadata for each of the monitoring stations used in the analysis. Our results show that the densely built‐up LCZ classes have higher annual and monthly mean and minimum air temperatures than structurally open and more vegetated classes, with nocturnal differences of >4 °C observed under calm, clear skies. Among select temperature indices measured in the urban LCZ classes, frost days, cooling degree‐days, and tropical nights differ markedly from the background rural LCZ classes. This difference suggests that local climatologies exist within Szeged, and that these have implications for thermal comfort, urban energy use, and urban agriculture. Finally, the evaluation of heating and cooling rates in Szeged shows an important role for LCZs in UHI analysis.