ORLANDO, Fla. – The Orlando metro area ranks as one of the 20 most intense urban heat islands in the nation, according to research conducted by a team of meteorologists.
Researchers at Climate Central describe a heat island as a metropolitan area that is hotter than its outlying regions, such as a downtown sector with a lot of buildings.
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“If you’re driving into downtown Orlando, and you look at your car thermometer -- even in the middle of the night -- you can see that temperature go up or down,” News 6 Meteorologist Jonathan Kegges said. “If you’re driving, you can see it’s 40 degrees here, and then as soon as you get into downtown, it’s 45 degrees.”
Kegges said buildings in a downtown area absorb the heat during the day and it stays warm, even when the sun goes down.
“With the heat island, you’re absorbing the heat. During the day, there’s more things like the asphalt, like the buildings to absorb that heat from during the afternoons. Then, as you get to nightfall, it radiates that heat back out that was absorbed throughout the day,” he said.
The Climate Central study looked at 159 cities across the nation, and it examined the reflectivity (albedo) of the urban areas, the amount of greenery and trees, building height and heat created by human activities.
It found the cities with the most intense urban heat islands were New Orleans, Newark, New York City, Houston and San Francisco.
Orlando ranked among a group of the 14th most intense with an estimated six-degree difference between the downtown core and outlying communities.
They cited the lack of reflective materials used, the need for more greenspace, the population density and the height of buildings.
Researchers said the heat islands result in higher electric bills for air conditioning and more pollution for electricity generation.
They also said it’s a danger to public health, especially for people who live in nearby neighborhoods and people who work outdoors.
Researchers offered some solutions aimed at lowering the temperature on these heat islands.
The solutions include using reflective paint, using different building materials that don’t absorb heat and planting more greenspace even on rooftops.
“You are going to heat up asphalt much, much quicker and much, much more intensely than, say, the forest next to it or the swamp or the wetland next to it,” said Kegges. “On top of buildings, if you’re putting more grass or more plants or more trees, you’re not absorbing as much heat.”
The city of Orlando has policies in place to address greenspaces.
According to the 2018 Community Action plan, the city aims to increase the tree canopy by 40% by the year 2040.
The city has also adopted a private tree protection ordinance to prevent larger trees from being cut down and there are also regulations on protecting wetlands from development.
