Hot in the City

[snopes]

[Duty forecaster Clive Stevens] said there is absolutely no truth to the urban myth in Dubai that the government orders official daily temperatures to be several degrees lower than they actually are.

http://www.xpress4me.com/news/uae/dubai/20000900.html

[bjohn13]

People seem to jump to conclusions when it comes to temperature readings. A lot of people don't understand that a temperature reading coming from direct sunlight will be skewed because of the way the measuring receptical will hold the sun's direct light as heat. Right across from where I live, a bank sign dutifully records the temperature day in and day out, but it is from a sensor from direct sunlight. So, when the city records a balmy 98 degrees in the middle of the summer, most people just remember the 107 they saw on the bank thermometer on the way to work. Some will say that temperature differs across town. Some will even say there is a conspiracy theory. However, since I keep my own regularly calibrated thermometer on my patio in the shade, and it generally concurs within 2-3 degrees of what is reported on the weather every night, I'm more prone to believe that the weather is being reported accurately.

Bear in mind, there is a difference between reporting weather accurately and predicting weather accurately.

Dubai International Airport MET office released figures this week at the request of XPRESS, comparing the last decade of weather records tracked at the airport weather station, to the decade before. For example, from 1985-1995, the average daily temperature was 27C, from 1995 to 2005, the mean daily number climbed to 28C.

“There has been a clear trend,” said duty forecaster Clive Stevens in an interview, “in the two decades, of around one degree.”

Had they not heard of the urban heat island effect? A city WILL be a few degrees warmer than the surrounding country.

Furthermore, as a city expands, the weather station that used to be in the country is now in the city, so much of the 1° rise over the past decade could easily be explained by the urban heat island effect.