The soil temperature near four external walls with different orientations was investigated in spring and summer. In both
seasons, the soil temperature was higher in the positions closest to the buildings, suggesting that the buildings were a
heat source for the soil surrounding them. Therefore, it could be confirmed that there was lateral heat transfer between
the soil and the buildings. Based on this, a soil heat flux plate was set between the soil and the buildings to investigate the
horizontal heat flux. The data showed diurnal variations of the horizontal heat flux in both spring and summer. In order
to determine the factors that influenced the horizontal heat flux and to provide a basis to understand its mechanism, the
correlations between the data of several meteorological factors and the horizontal heat flux were analysed. The results
showed that solar radiation was significantly correlated with the horizontal heat flux (p<0.0001) in any single season and
in the two seasons that were studied. Additionally, other meteorological factors (net radiation, air temperature, relative
humidity and soil temperature and moisture) showed strong correlations with the horizontal heat flux on a diurnal scale
only. On a seasonal time scale, the correlation might be significant (p<0.0001) as well, but the correlation coefficients
decreased too significantly, such as those for soil temperature, air temperature and relative humidity. Alternatively, the
correlation might not be significant (p>0.05), such as that for soil moisture. The stepwise regression results indicated
that the relative importance of these meteorological factors was 48.63, 21.94, 14.44, 8.12 and 6.87% for solar radiation,
soil temperature, air temperature, relative humidity and soil moisture, respectively, on a diurnal scale.