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ATTLEBORO - While their peers were in class Monday, a handful of Bridgewater State College students were doing a project atop the Bigney Building in downtown Attleboro.

Students Matt Desmarais, Pat McDonough and Jamieson Wicks were checking out weather readings on the snow-capped roof, along with professors Rob Hellstrom and Darcy Boellstorff.

The group is studying the "micro climates" of Southeastern Massachusetts to determine how development affects temperature and evaporation.

The region was selected for study because of the rapid commercial and residential development it has experienced in recent years.

Weather stations have been set up in downtown Attleboro, a subdivision in Taunton, a coastal site in Plymouth, the Hockomock Swamp in Bridgewater and a parking lot at the college. The Attleboro station is on the roof of the industrial building at the corner of Wall and County streets, which includes Lambco Appliance and Midland Supply.

Hellstrom said he hopes the project will eventually lead to recommendations for land-use planners that will help minimize the adverse effects development can have on climate.

Desmarais, a Norton resident, said the impervious surfaces on city roofs, parking lots, and buildings cause more water to run off than in greener, more suburban locations.

The water from rain and snow does not have a chance to evaporate in cities, resulting in a loss of the cooling effects of evaporation, he said.

McDonough said the study has already found that a suburban cul-de-sac just miles away from downtown Attleboro has a significantly cooler temperature. Finding ways to make developments greener can help reduce global warming, Hellstrom said.

He said simple things like having grass islands in major parking lots and using lighter colors in roofing can help.

The project started in September after Hellstrom got a $5,000 grant from Bridgewater State College.

To save money, Hellstrom and the students built their own weather stations to place in seven locations in Southeastern Massachusetts.

Wicks said they made anemometers - or wind gauges - with ping pong balls and solar radiation detectors out of whiffle balls.

The cost ended up being a few hundreds dollars, whereas one store-bought weather station would have cost $5,000, he said. The group periodically travels to each of the seven sites to download information into a laptop computer.

Boellstorff, who specializes in geographic information systems, analyzes the data and plots the information with her statistics students.

Getting to the roof of the Bigney Building on County Street involves walking through a maze of rooms in the 106-year-old factory and a climb up a steep, rickety wooden ladder.

The roof offers a commanding view of downtown Attleboro.

Melting snow Monday was pouring off the roof, onto a paved parking lot and down a drain.

At nearby Balfour Riverwalk Park, the snow was melting much less quickly on the grass, illustrating the effects the group is studying.

"Nothing is more gratifying to me to be out here in the weather, observing it. Part of science is observing," Hellstrom said.