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Painting London ’s rooftop white could help cut the outdoor temperature of the metropolis by up to 3.6 degree Fahrenheit ( 2 degrees Celsius ) , allot to a new written report that investigate the most in effect ways to cool the U.K. cap .
Climate variety is carry to lead tohotter and drier summer in London , with the average summer ’s Clarence Day around 5.4 F ( 3 degree centigrade ) hotter by 2050 . The Modern findings suggest painting roof whitened may be one of the ways the British city can react .
Aerial map showing temperatures in London overnight during a heatwave.
" We comprehensively tested multiple method that cities like London could apply to adapt to and mitigate thawing temperatures , and found that coolheaded roof were the better way to keep temperatures down during exceedingly red-hot summer days , " lead authorOscar Brousse , a reader at University College London who narrow down in urban meteorology and environmental modeling , tell in astatement . " Other methods had various significant side benefits , but none were able to reduce out-of-door urban heat to nearly the same horizontal surface . "
Like many major urban center , London is in a precarious position as global temperatures increase because it ’s built to absorb heat . sour buildings , asphalt road and hush-hush rail internet all make it an " urban heat island , " where urban areas are importantly warm than the surrounding rural areas . Urban planners are now looking atways the city can conform to ever - increase temperatures .
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Temperatures in London in the summer are predicted to get 5.4 F (3 C) hotter by 2050.
In the study , release July 4 in the journalGeophysical Research Letters , scientist looked at the most efficient elbow room to cool the metropolis in the face ofclimate change . They examined the impact of various strategies , including adding rooftop solar panels , paint roofs ashen or cover them with a reflective coating ( known as " nerveless roofs " ) , cover roofs in flora , constitute more street - level flora and the large - scale deployment of air conditioning .
To do so , they create a 3D electronic computer model of London and ran 11 different climate simulation using the different techniques to chill the metropolis on the two hottest days of summertime 2018 , when temperature get through 95 level F ( 35 coulomb ) . All simulations assume widespread espousal of each technique .
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The results showed that " nerveless roofs " that were painted whitened or covered with a reflective covering , when take on widely , reduce the outside temperature by 2 F ( 1.2 C ) on average , and 3.6 F in some areas . Extensive street botany and solar panels caused temperature to fall by about 0.5 F ( 0.3 ascorbic acid ) , while green roofs had a trifling impingement . Air conditioning may keep dwellings cool , but it warmed the outdoor temperature by up to 1.8 F ( 1 C ) in central London .
There were several limitation to the study , including that the researchers front only at the outside temperature and did not look at the toll and benefit of other interventions , such as increased biodiversity and low indoor temperature , the authors write in the cogitation .
" Despite these limitation , we expect our results to be at the least declarative of which interventions are subject of bring out the greatest cooling system event in London during hot summer day , " they publish .
