Luke Howard and The Climate of London

The International Association for Urban Climate (IAUC) has recently re-published Luke Howard’s The Climate of London. While Howard is best known for his work on clouds (e.g. Hamblyn, 2001; Pedgley, 2003), he was also the first to recognize the effect that urban areas have on local climate. Although The Climate of London is largely concerned with the weather and climate in general as seen from the vantage point of London, his analysis of temperature records allowed him to detect, describe and analyze the urban heat island phenomenon many decades before others. For this reason, the IAUC’s highest recognition for achievement in the field of urban climatology is the Luke Howard Award. To mark the initiation of the award, the IAUC undertook to republish the second edition of The Climate of London (1833), which consists of three volumes and is a rare book, often cited but rarely accessed (Howard, 2007). In this article, I endeavour to describe The Climate of London and its importance. In particular, I focus on Howard’s analysis of the urban heat-island phenomenon and place it within the context of modern urban climatology. Howard was born in London in 1772 into a Quaker household. Although he trained as a pharmacist, he had a passionate interest in climate and weather, a study that he advocates to others in The Climate of London as a worthwhile pursuit: