Local temperature differences in relation to weather parameters

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to focus on the influence of clouds and wind on air and road surface temperature variations between different types of local climate environments. The study area covers 160×130 km2 and includes 35 field stations in the Swedish Road Weather Information System (RWIS) and two synoptic weather stations. By combining data from the two sources, the spatial and temporal variations in air and road surface temperature have been analysed. In the first part of this paper the theoretical influence of different weather parameters is determined. In the empirical part of the study, a validation of the theoretical result is assessed using temperature and weather data from the study area. The results show that it is possible to calculate the temperature variations in relation to topographical siting and different weather factors. During day-time conditions, the effect of screening from the sun has a significant influence on the road surface temperature, even with cloudiness amounting to 4–6 octas, provided that the solar elevation is high. During night-time, the potential for pooling of cold air is determined by cloud cover and wind speed. When cloudy situations prevail during night-time, neutral stability is dominant resulting in a decrease with increasing altitude for both air and surface temperatures. Road surface temperatures, however, have a lower correlation with altitude than air temperature. The variation in surface temperature decreases with altitude is also larger and has a more even distribution than the air temperature decrease with altitude. Wind speed was not an important factor for the variation in surface temperature decrease with altitude, but insolation from the sun during day-time is one parameter to consider. Copyright © 2000 Royal Meteorological Society