Spatial Variability of Temperature Trends in Urbanized and Urbanizing Areas of North Carolina

Abstract

This paper investigates the differences in temperature trends during a 40-year period in urbanized and urbanizing areas in North Carolina. Urbanized sites are in the urban cores of the selected regions; urbanizing sites are in outlying suburban locations characterized by lower development intensities than their respective urban cores. We examined maximum and minimum temperatures for four seasons represented by the months of March, June, September, and December. This study shows that the heavily urbanized downtown areas did not exhibit significant increasing trend in temperatures. Rather, the significant increases in temperatures occurred in suburban areas that experienced varying degrees of urbanization during the past 40 years. We conclude that although some urbanized areas may have higher temperatures than areas in their surrounding regions, urbanizing locations outside of central cities may be closing that gap, possibly due to the process of urbanization.