An Analysis of the Relationship between High Ozone Concentrations and the Urban Heat Island in the Saint Louis Metropolitan Area

Using high spatial and temporal resolution data from the QuantumWeather mesonet, a careful mesoanalysis of days with and without high ozone concentrations was conducted. The intent was to determine what role if any the Saint Louis’s Urban Heat Island contributed to the observed high ozone concentrations. Preliminary results from the mesoanalysis indicate that days with high ozone concentrations were associated days when wake vorticies formed downwind from the urban heat island. These mesoscale vorticies  re-circulate ozone created outside the immediate Saint Louis metropolitan area back into the immediate Saint Louis metropolitan area.