Contrasting intra-urban signatures of humid and dry heatwaves over Southern California

Abstract

Heatwaves in California manifest as both dry and humid events. While both forms have become more prevalent, recent studies have identified a shift towards more humid events. Understanding the complex interactions of each heatwave type with the urban heat island are crucial for impacts, but remain understudied. Here, we address this gap by contrasting how dry versus humid heatwaves shape the intra-urban heat of greater Los Angeles (LA) area. We used a consecutive contrasting set of heatwaves from 2020 as a case study: a prolonged humid heatwave in August and an extremely dry heatwave in September. We used MERRA2 reanalysis data to compare mesoscale dynamics, followed by high-resolution Weather Research Forecast modeling over urbanized Southern California. We employ moist thermodynamic variables to quantify heat stress and perform spatial clustering analysis to characterize the spatiotemporal intra-urban variability. We find that despite temperatures being 10±3°C hotter in the September heatwave, the wet bulb temperature, closely related to the risk of human heat stroke, was higher in August. While dry and humid heat display different spatial patterns, three distinct spatial clusters emerge based on non-heatwave local climates. But both types of heatwaves diminish the intra-urban heat stress variability. Valley areas such as San Bernardino and Riverside experience the worst impacts with up to 6±0.5°C of additional heat stress during heatwave nights. Our results highlight the need to account for the disparity in small-scale heatwave patterns across urban neighborhoods in designing policies for equitable climate action.