Are the temperature records affected by the urban heat island effect?
As population centers grow in size, they also have a corresponding increase in average temperature. Scientists refer to this phenomenon as the “urban heat island effect” (UHIE). Extensive research shows the UHIE can account for a small amount (~0.05ºC at most) of the global warming observed over the past century. In fact, trends from rural and urban stations are very similar. Furthermore, the ocean and borehole records, which are not affected at all by the UHIE, show similar amounts of warming over the last century.
