Winter UHI Effect on Snowfall in St. Louis, Missouri

Urban Heat Islands (UHI) are localized meteorological phenomena characterized by urban areas featuring warmer temperatures than their surrounding areas. It is important to study the effects of UHI because over half the world’s population currently resides in urban areas with 68% of the world’s population being estimated to live in urban areas by 2050.The effects of UHI on summertime precipitation events are well documented. However, there is little to no research on their effects on wintertime precipitation events. This research investigates a wintertime UHI case-study of a synoptic snowfall event that occurred over the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area February 4-5, 2014. The effects of the St. Louis UHI on this event were investigated by performing numerical simulations using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Two model simulations of the event, one with urban land cover and one without, were performed allowing for direct analysis of the influence of land cover on UHI processes.