{"id":85973,"date":"2024-09-09T15:30:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T19:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/?p=85973"},"modified":"2024-09-09T15:53:25","modified_gmt":"2024-09-09T19:53:25","slug":"large-urban-development-linked-to-more-rainfall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/insideclimatenews.org\/news\/09092024\/large-urban-development-linked-to-more-rainfall\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Cities Disrupt the Atmosphere, Often Generating More Rainfall, But Can Also Have a Drying Effect"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The world\u2019s largest urban areas have an outsized influence on regional weather and climate patterns, often creating \u201cwet islands,\u201d with more rainfall over cities and adjacent downwind areas, according to a study<\/a> published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NASA-funded research used satellite data to measure rainfall in and around the world\u2019s most populated cities 1,056 cities from 2001 to 2020, finding that 63 percent of them received more annual precipitation in and downwind of their urban areas, compared to bordering rural areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cities affect regional weather and climate because they change the temperature and texture of the terrain, which affects how air flows over the land, and because they produce clouds of tiny pollution particles called aerosols, which can come from a variety of sources including industrial emissions, car exhaust and even trees, that can produce either more or less rain, depending on their exact chemical makeup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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