The urban heat island phenomenon occurs in urban areas. It is characterized by increased temperature of both the air and ground surface, compared to the surrounding rural landscape, and is a typical feature of the urban climate. As this phenomenon may affect quality of life in the cities, a variety of scientific studies have been carried out. The article provides a review and evaluation of selected published studies devoted to the issue of the urban heat island, from the point of view of the application of land cover and land use data in the 3-dimensional microscale urban model. Part of the review brings into focus the MUKLIMO model, which computes the atmospheric conditions in urban landscapes and predicts thermal and other climatic characteristics. Evaluated studies confirmed the correlation between the land cover/land use classes and occurrence of the urban heat islands, i.e. a higher percentage of impermeable surfaces within the urban heat island causes more intensive thermal manifestation. The urban heat island effect diminishes when there are less impermeable surfaces and a greater representation of urban greenery in land cover/land use classes.

Heavy rainfall events causing floods and flash floods are examined in the context of solar wind coupling to the magnetosphere–ionosphere–atmosphere system. The superposed epoch (SPE) analyses of solar wind variables have shown the tendency of severe weather to follow arrivals of high-speed streams from solar coronal holes. Precipitation data sets based on rain gauge and satellite sensor measurements are used to examine the relationship between the solar wind high-speed streams and daily precipitation rates over several midlatitude regions. The SPE analysis results show an increase in the occurrence of high precipitation rates following arrivals of high-speed streams, including recurrence with a solar rotation period of 27 d. The cross-correlation analysis applied to the SPE averages of the green (Fe XIV; 530.3 nm) corona intensity observed by ground-based coronagraphs, solar wind parameters, and daily precipitation rates show correlation peaks at lags spaced by solar rotation period. When the SPE analysis is limited to years around the solar minimum (2008–2009), which was dominated by recurrent coronal holes separated by ∼ 120^∘ in heliographic longitude, significant cross-correlation peaks are found at lags spaced by 9 d. These results are further demonstrated by cases of heavy rainfall, floods and flash floods in Europe, Japan, and the USA, highlighting the role of solar wind coupling to the magnetosphere–ionosphere–atmosphere system in severe weather, mediated by aurorally excited atmospheric gravity waves.

The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) is the most important circulation phenomenon in the Northern Atlantic which impacts climate in Europe in various ways. Precipitation is a basic climatic element which affects the landscape significantly. Therefore in this paper, the relationship between the NAO and winter precipitation in Slovakia is analysed. A Spearman’s correlation analysis was used, which detected the impacts of NAO on the above-mentioned seasonal precipitation in different regions of Slovakia. The correlation coefficients obtained positive values in the region of Orava and Kysuce and changed to negative ones in a southward direction. The detected zonal configuration can be explained by the topographic barrier effect of the Carpathians