From Data to Action: How Urban Heat Mapping Campaigns Can Expose Vulnerabilities and Inform Local Heat Policy Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society

Extreme heat poses a major hazard in urban areas due in large part to the urban heat island. Differences in observed temperatures and associated health effects between urban and surrounding rural locations are well documented (Yadav et al. 2023; Cheval et al. 2024). However, the complex nature of cities results in significant intraurban variability in temperature as well as variability in the underlying demographic and social characteristics of the urban population. The growing appreciation for intraurban temperature variability has led to field campaigns to measure the fine-scaled patterns of extreme heat across the urban landscape. Many of these campaigns have been conducted under the Heat Watch Program (NOAA 2024), which was developed by CAPA Strategies and is currently funded by NOAA. Since 2017, over 60 cities and communities have participated in the Heat Watch Program, resulting in detailed machine learning–generated thermal “fingerprints” using data collected by volunteers. While these maps reveal the geographic distribution of heat across a city, there remains a gap in applying these data to better understand and respond to local-scale inequities in heat exposure.