GoKawiilNEWS AND VIEWS
20 May 2026 Cities affect small and large storms differently Analysis of a 23-year record of Texan storms reveals how urban landscapes affect storm rainfall — painting a more complex picture than had been realized. By Wei Zhang 0 Wei Zhang Wei Zhang is in the Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, Utah State University, Logan, Utah 84322, USA. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
Urban landscapes can exacerbate flood risk by increasing the fraction of total rainfall that flows on the land surface, relative to that proportion in natural settings, and by making land surfaces more impervious to water1,2. Urbanization can also change the amount, intensity and spatial patterns of storm rainfall by modifying land-surface roughness, which alters surface drag on storm systems; through the heat- and cloud-altering effects of aerosols, which are found in high concentrations in urban atmospheres; and through the effects of anthropogenic heat generated in urban areas1,3–8. Writing in Nature, Sui et al.9 report their analysis of a 23-year record of storm events that were observed using radar. They find that the effects of urban landscapes on precipitation strongly depend on the size and meteorological origin of storms, resulting in differences in the frequency, intensity and vertical structure of different storm types over cities.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01323-z
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Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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