Urban Heat Islands Significantly Reduced by COVID-19 Lockdown

Abstract

The significant reduction in human activities during COVID-19 lockdown is anticipated to substantially influence urban climates, especially urban heat islands (UHIs). However, the UHI variations during lockdown periods remain to be quantified. Based on the MODIS daily land surface temperature and the in-situ surface air temperature observations, we reveal a substantial decline in both surface and canopy UHIs over 300-plus megacities in China during lockdown periods compared with reference periods. The surface UHI intensity (UHII) is reduced by 0.25 (one S.D. = 0.22) K in the daytime and by 0.23 (0.20) K at night during lockdown periods. The reductions in canopy UHII reach 0.42 (one S.D. = 0.26) K in the daytime and 0.39 (0.29) K at night. These reductions are mainly due to the near-unprecedented drop in human activities induced by strict lockdown measures. Our results provide an improved understanding of the urban climate variations during the global pandemic.