"Having this kind of awareness that that's an issue can be a lifesaver." "As the threat of heat continues to rise, people become more aware that heat is an issue and life threatening and it affects different people differently," Williams said. Joey Williams, the project manager for CAPA Heat Watch, said heat mapping started to help people learn about where extreme heat impacts their lives, and to help cities come up with strategies to address it. Since 2017, NOAA has funded the Climate Adaptation Planning and Analytics Heat Watch program (CAPA) to help organize and provide the equipment and results to over 60 communities across the U.S. "What we're seeing right now in the Myriad Gardens is a great example of a potential cooling strategy for urban heat islands," she said.Ĭooling strategies can come from understanding the hottest parts of urban areas. Thermal imaging put the sidewalk at 93 degrees while tree shade was at 85 degrees. The prairie habitat at the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, for example, had cooler temperatures than the concrete that makes up the core of the city. Terry-Cobo walked around downtown Oklahoma City that rainy, humid August day capturing thermal images on her phone. Trees don't always provide enough cooling because heat gets trapped in roofs, roads, and sidewalks creating what's called the urban heat island effect. Volunteers then drive a route to collect temperature and air quality data. KOSU Air quality and heat mapping devices are attached to cars. "And that, you know, is still pretty hot compared to some of these other neighborhoods that we were expecting to be very hot." "A more affluent area like Mesta Park has a lot of older tree canopy that's intact," Terry-Cobo said. She was surprised to find out that Mesta Park – with its large sycamore and oak trees that tower over houses – was one of the hottest areas in Oklahoma City. Sarah Terry-Cobo, associate planner for Oklahoma City's Office of Sustainability, led last year's heat mapping efforts. The data from the sensors last summer showed that downtown Oklahoma City was 15 degrees hotter than the outer edges of the city, like neighborhoods near Lake Stanley-Draper in the southeast. "If we want to take a deeper look for the heat stress like in our communities, community-based is the most appropriate way to understand the heat stress better," Li said. Hongwan Li, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma, researches air quality and helped collect data last summer. Understanding where heat pockets persist in communities is the first step to cooling those places down - and protecting residents from heat illness. Those citizen scientists attached air quality and heat monitoring sensors to their cars to take air and temperature readings of the hottest neighborhoods in Oklahoma City on an August day last year. Oklahoma City's Office of Sustainability, in partnership with the University of Oklahoma, and other environmental organizations, recruited volunteers to act as "citizen scientists" to help researchers gather key data. Last year, Oklahoma City joined 14 other cities in a national project through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to map where heat lingers in neighborhoods. Communities like Oklahoma City are now preparing for a future with extreme temperatures by understanding which areas are the hottest. Climate change, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels, pushed temperatures so high last year that scientists were astounded when 2023 became the hottest year on record.
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