MGWA member Greg Brick was recently interviewed by podcaster Ian R Buck on Minneapolis’ warming groundwater. Urban heat islands are well-known but their role in warming urban groundwater is usually ignored. Nowhere so dramatically as under the city of Minneapolis, which contains a century long record of this change. Groundwater has risen from a baseline of 46 F to 66 F in the course of one century. While most of this is due to vertical heat conduction through basements and pavements, about 2/5 of the effect is attributable to climate change, according to modeling by the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. This thermal anomaly also has potential public health implications. This podcast interview by Streets.MN discusses the issues at stake.
The podcast is available online at: https://streets.mn/2025/04/02/minneapolis-urban-groundwater-heat-island-effect/
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