Effect of urban heat island mitigation strategies on precipitation and temperature in Montreal, Canada: Case studies

Abstract

High-resolution numerical weather prediction experiments using the Global Environmental Multiscale (GEM) model at a 250-m horizontal resolution are used to investigate the effect of the urban land-use on 2-m surface air temperature, thermal comfort, and rainfall over the Montreal (Canada) area. We focus on two different events of high temperatures lasting 2–3 days followed by intense rainfall: one is a large-scale synoptic system that crosses Montreal at night and the other is an afternoon squall line. Our model shows an overall good performance in adequately capturing the surface air temperature, dew-point temperature and rainfall during the events, although the precipitation pattern seems to be slightly blocked upwind of the city. Sensitivity experiments with different land use scenarios were conducted. Replacing all urban surfaces by low vegetation showed an increase of human comfort, lowering the heat index during the night between 2° and 6°C. Increasing the albedo of urban surfaces led to an improvement of comfort of up to 1°C during daytime, whereas adding street-level low vegetation had an improvement of comfort throughout the day of up to 0.5°C in the downtown area. With respect to precipitation, significant differences are only seen for the squall line event, for which removing the city modifies the precipitation pattern. For the large-scale synoptic system, the presence of the city does not seem to impact precipitation. These findings offer insight on the effects of urban morphology on the near-surface atmospheric conditions.