Climate News
Dallas seeks volunteers to track the hottest neighborhoods in the city
City of Dallas skyline
The City of Dallas is seeking volunteers on a project to measure how hot it is.
The one-day project will take place on August 10, and will map "heat island areas" in more than a dozen neighborhoods across the city.
Volunteers will collect data which gets used to create a high-resolution map of the city’s hottest neighborhoods. That data is used to plan cooling projects, tree planting, and other climate action strategies.
Part one of this initiative began in summer 2023, when city staff and approximately 70 volunteers mappled 100 square miles of the city. Now we are at round 2, when volunteers will map approximately 245 square miles of Dallas.
Using specially designed sensors are mounted to the windows of volunteers' cars, they drive prescribed routes to record ambient temperatures and humidity, during three specific times during the day: morning, afternoon, and evening: from 6-7 am, 3-4 pm, and 7-8 pm.
August 10 is chosen because it's anticipated to be one of the hottest days of the year. Noted!
Areas they'll cover include Kiest Park, Mountain Creek, Pleasant Grove, Buckner Terrace, Bahama Beach Waterpark, Lakewood, Casa View, North Dallas, Far North Dallas, Cypress Waters, and Northwest Dallas.
The irony is that cars contribute to climate change, but this small sacrifice is for the greater good.
Now in its eighth year, the NOAA Urban Heat Island (UHI) mapping campaign addresses extreme heat, the number one weather-related cause of death in the U.S. for the last three decades.
Urban heat islands — areas with few trees and more pavement that absorbs heat — can be up to 20 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than nearby neighborhoods with more trees, grass and less black asphalt.
Volunteers get paired up to fulfill one of two roles: Driver or Navigator. (Volunteers may also help manage the central hub.) There's an online training session to learn how to use the equipment and collect the data. (They use an app to provide step-by-step driving instructions.) On campaign day, volunteers meet one of two locations, depending on routes assigned, and off they go.
Sign up at this link.
As a release notes, summer 2023 was Earth’s hottest on record.
