Urban induced land-use change impact during pre-monsoon thunderstorms over Bhubaneswar-Cuttack urban complex

Abstract

The effect of urbanization over the Bhubaneswar-Cuttack urban complex, a twin city of eastern India, is investigated in this study. For this purpose, the realistic representation of urban land use (LU) from the ‘Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’ and the older ‘United States Geological Survey’ is considered. The sensitivity experiment was performed to choose microphysics that was suitable for the study location. The recent LU simulations improved the amount and spatio-temporal distribution of rainfall over the city. Results suggested that the underlying impervious layer has a remarkable impact on the precipitation, temperature, and other meteorological variables during thunderstorms. Most of the simulated rain is found in the downwind direction of the city core and over the suburban periphery. The variation of the rainfall, showing dual peak characteristics during late evening hour, has excellent correspondence with the associated atmospheric moisture transport and dynamics and thermodynamics. The near-surface temperature and urban heat island found to be well simulated, covering the entire urban core from 12 UTC onward.