Abstract
This study has analysed the development of the urban heat island (UHI) under various synoptic scale atmospheric circulation for two large cities – Prague in central Europe and Bucharest in south-eastern Europe, including seasonal differences and long-term changes. At the best of our knowledge, it is the first comparison between two European cities from this perspective. Analysis was conducted on the base of minimum air temperature data from pairs of urban and peri-urban stations. The average UHI intensity is 2.3 °C for Prague and 1.8 °C for Bucharest, it exceeds 4 °C in 6–10% of cases, and the highest values occur in August in both cities. The annual course of monthly mean values of UHI intensities has higher amplitude in Bucharest (1.2 °C) than Prague (0.6 °C). Synoptic scale circulation is classified according to mean sea level pressure data from ECMWF Era-Interim reanalysis using cost733class software. The results show that UHI is more intense under anticyclonic situations with southern winds in the both cities. Over 1981–2016, we found that the UHI intensity followed statistically significant increasing trend, much larger trend for Bucharest than Prague (3.3 °C vs. 1.3 °C / 100 years).
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