Urban heat storage derived as energy balance residuals

The hourly heat storage changes of a suburban area in Vancouver B.C. are evaluated by residual after determining all other terms in the surface energy balance. Despite the errors and uncertainties associated with this approach, the resulting diurnal cycle of heat storage uptake and release appears to behave in a fashion similar to that of less complex systems. When plotted against the net all-wave radiation, the heat storage values display a hysteresis loop with the peak storage preceding that of radiation. Therefore, although a linear parameterization of heat storage is shown to produce reasonable first-order estimates of storage, a form which includes the time derivative of the net radiation is probably better.