This heat toys with atmospheric systems, ups temperatures in various regions

Jan 28, 2013 09:36 GMT  ·  By

A new study whose findings have recently been published in the scientific journal Nature Climate Change maintains that, as peculiar as this may sound, large cities are well capable of influencing the temperatures recorded in regions located continents away from them.

Apparently, this is because such crowded urban areas more often than not require tremendous amounts of energy in order to keep up and running at all times.

Given the fact that most of this energy is produced by burning coal, oil and the like, it need not come as a surprise that large cities must be held accountable for producing significant amounts of excess heat.

The researchers who forwarded this theory that large cities can influence climate continents away are quite convinced that this so-called waste heat is nothing if not likely to get into atmospheric currents and toy with temperatures worldwide.

After carrying out several investigations, the researchers have reached the conclusion that large cities located in the northern hemisphere influence winter temperatures in northern Asia and northern America, meaning that they up them. Daily Mail quotes Dr. Guang Zhang, a researcher presently working with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California, who commented on the findings of this study as follows:

“What we found is that energy use from multiple urban areas collectively can warm the atmosphere remotely, thousands of miles away from energy consumption regions. This is accomplished through atmospheric circulation change.”

Backing up these statements, Dr Aixue Hu, from the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, made a case of how, “The burning of fossil fuel not only emits greenhouse gases but also directly affects temperatures because of heat that escapes from sources like buildings and cars.”

“Although much of this waste heat is concentrated in large cities, it can change atmospheric patterns in a way that raises or lowers temperatures across considerable distances,” he went on to add.

According to the scientists who have pieced together this study, the excess heat generated by such crowded urban areas can heat up remote locations by as much as one degree Celsius (34 degrees Fahrenheit).