A Heatwave Through an Infra-red Camera

Measuring the city’s hottest days and why we should plant more trees.

About ten days ago, our city experienced the first heatwave of this summer. At its peak, we’ve got 30 to 38°C. I took that opportunity to have a few strolls through my town with an infrared camera, Voltcraft WB-300, to have a look at what the surface temperatures might be like.

Disclaimer: the camera marks the lowest and the highest temperature with a square (L or H), while the number in the upper left corner shows the average temperature of the whole image. The surface temperature could be read out by comparing hues with the bar on the right. [1]

First, let’s see the difference between two park benches that are only 30 meters apart:

The surface of the exposed one goes almost up to 70°C, while the shaded one is at around 40°C. There is no way to comfortably sit on the former while the latter might still be useable. The same would be true for children’s playgrounds.

Next, the cars.

As expected, a comparison between a white and a black car shows quite a bit of difference; the white/silver car goes to about 45°C while the black one hits 73°C.

A car in the shade of a building stays cool, though:

And lastly, housing. (White) houses go up to 50°C or even 60°C at their surface. Without proper insulation, these temperatures would quickly find…