URBAN–RURAL HUMIDITY CONTRASTS IN MEXICO CITY

✍ Scribed by JÁUREGUI, E.; TEJEDA, A.

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 279 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0899-8418
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-0088(199702)17:2<187::aid-joc114>3.0.co;2-p

✦ Synopsis

Data from one pair of urban-suburban (Tacubaya and Airport) and one pair of urban-rural (School of Mines and Plan Texcoco) temperature and humidity measuring stations were used to illustrate specific humidity (q) contrasts in Mexico City.

Results show a marked seasonal variation of q from around 719 g kg 71 during the dry months to 10 g kg 71 in the wet season (May-October) on both urban and suburban sites. The mean monthly contrasts for this pair of stations, albeit small, show that the city air is somewhat drier during the first half of the year. Comparison of urban and rural q on an hourly basis shows that although urban air is more humid at night the reverse is true during the afternoon. Areal distribution of q shows two centres of maximum humidity over the city at night and a corresponding minimum during the afternoon. On average the urban-rural contrasts in q were found to be somewhat smaller than the estimated uncertainty. The above results are in agreement with midlatitude experience.