The present paper reports on the impact of ventilation mode – active versus passive – of instrument screens for air temperature measurements on canopy urban heat (island) indicators. This is done using air temperature data gathered in the Antwerp (Belgium) area in July 2013, in an experimental set-up composed of an urban and a nearby rural climate station, each equipped with both actively and passively ventilated temperature sensors. The resulting data shows an air temperature bias between the passively and actively ventilated measurements of up to approximately 2 °C, the highest values occurring under conditions of a high solar radiation load and low wind speed. Yet, the canopy urban heat island (UHI) increment, i.e., the urban-rural air temperature difference, is hardly affected by the ventilation method, which is ascribed to the fact that high UHI increments occur mainly at night when, in absence of solar radiation, active ventilation has a lesser influence on measured temperature. Conversely, urban heat indicators involving daytime air temperature, such as heatwave degree days (HWDD) or Steadman's apparent temperature, tend to produce overly high values when use is made of passively ventilated temperature measurements.