Modeled Day and Nighttime Urban Air Temperature in Denver, CO

Figure 2: Modeled day and nighttime urban air temperature in the city of Denver (footprint cutout in red in lower left corner), during a potential heat wave. Local temperature used for daytime was 35 °C, and for nighttime was 22° C. Blue colors on the map indicate areas that are cooler than the citywide mean air temperature, while red areas represent areas that are warmer than the citywide average temperature at that time. As we found tree canopy has the strongest cooling effect during the day, and impervious surface has the strongest warming effect at night, these maps can provide a target for where best to provide heat mitigation during the day and night through land cover change (planting trees and removing impervious surfaces). Credit – Ibsen, PC., et al, (2022), Science of the Total Environment