Airport heat

loading

Hot days a year at US airports

Reported air temperature and apron land surface temperature, at the overpass minute

Two different physical quantities. Air temperature is measured 2 m up, in shade, over grass. Land surface temperature is what the ground itself radiates. Surfaces run hotter than air almost everywhere, so this gap is not a heat-island measurement.

station air temperature (2 m) apron land surface temperature that day's high

Land surface temperature scale

Land surface temperature by surface type

AirportSurface Average °FPeak °FMax °FMeasurements