Evidence of Urban Weather Modification in a Mid-Sized Urban Area – a Climatological Analysis of Augusta,Georgia

Studies have confirmed that large urban areas can modify weather processes. The majority of these
studies have focused on large cities or urban clusters and have largely ignored small to moderate sized
cities. Herein, an analysis of the Augusta, Georgia metropolitan statistical area is conducted. We present
an overview of ongoing field and remote sensing work revealing the presence of the Urban Heat Island
((UHI). The analysis also confirms that a moderate-sized city like Augusta not only exhibits a UHI but also
an “urban rainfall effect” (URE) and “urban cloud effect” (UCE), respectively. Contextual analysis of
other local mesoscale signatures related to nearby water bodies provides confidence that the signals are
robust.