Success Story: Mapping Temperatures

The National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and CAPA Strategies administer the Heat Watch program each year, if funds are available. The program guides a cohort of communities through an urban heat island mapping project. The NC Museum of Life and Science successfully applied to the program in November 2020 with several partners.

• Once accepted, Durham County and the City of Raleigh, in partnership with the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and the NC State Climate Office formed a steering committee. The committee talked with neighborhoods and community groups to better understand what was important to them.
• The steering committee identified the study areas, prioritizing diverse land uses and neighborhoods. CAPA Strategies selected the best data collection routes.
• Activate Good helped recruit over 165 volunteers for the Raleigh and Durham campaign, the most recruited by all campaigns nationally in 2021. Activate Good is an organization that connects volunteers to community service projects.
• The project team worked with the National Weather Service to select an appropriate weather day to collect the data.
• In advance of the campaign day, the North Carolina Museum of Life and Science trained volunteers. CAPA Strategies sent the sensor equipment to the project team. The museum provided handheld sensors and infrared cameras.
• On the campaign day, held in July 2021, project managers set up control hubs in Raleigh and Durham. The hubs functioned as central organizing spots for distributing and collecting equipment. Volunteers walked, biked or drove during three times slots — morning, afternoon and evening — on pre-determined routes, collecting data from the provided sensors. They measured ambient temperature, humidity, geographic location and speed.
• Project managers sent the collected data to CAPA Strategies. CAPA returned cleaned data, maps and other analysis in a final report in January 2022.
• The State Climate Office made campaign maps and data publicly available.
• Partners offered webinars to review the results of the campaign with the public. Partners continue to engage with local agencies, neighborhoods and interested parties to educate about extreme heat and urban heat island using local data.

• If federal funding is available, NOAA pays the Heat Watch fee for participating jurisdictions (National Integrated Heat Health Information System, n.d.).
• The NC Museum of Life and Science provided handheld heat sensors and cameras that take infrared images.
• Local businesses provided food and beverages during the volunteer campaign day.

Durham County, City of Raleigh, NC Museum of Life and Science, NC Museum of Natural Sciences, State Climate Office of North Carolina, National Weather Service Raleigh Office, Activate Good, NIHHIS, NOAA and CAPA Strategies

• Results: Durham and Raleigh identified several areas with excessively higher temperatures. They found that temperatures in these locations were higher even in the evening and early morning. These locations tended to have more impervious surface. Project partners also found that disadvantaged areas have higher average temperatures throughout the day than other areas.
• The NC Museum of Life and Science hosted several public programs and developed two exhibits based on these data. One program was in collaboration with the Hayti Heritage Cultural Center about how heat and other environmental hazards affect residents.
• The Museum of Life and Science worked with Durham Public Schools and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to use these data in public school classrooms. Partners continue to monitor heat with public school students.
• Durham plans to build off the campaign by implementing heat management projects such as green infrastructure in “heat island” areas.
• The City of Raleigh Department of Transportation secured $150,000 in supplemental funding in 2022 to apply a coating to streets in areas with high urban heat. The coating increases the roads' reflectivity, which means that the road surface will not absorb as much heat and the air above the road does not get as hot. The coating also extends the life of pavements, absorbs some emissions and reduces pollutants. Treated roads in Raleigh showed a 37% reduction in a common roadway pollutant. Raleigh plans to continue applying the coating to roadways in high heat areas.
• Raleigh’s Stormwater Management Division invested $750,000 of the City’s American Rescue Plan Act funds toward the installation of green stormwater infrastructure and street trees. In addition, Raleigh’s Urban Forestry Group received approval from City Council to plant 1,000 trees in the right of way with $750,000. Both projects will address the inequality in the distribution of street trees in racially or ethnically concentrated areas of poverty.
• Raleigh merged the campaign’s urban heat data with a 3-D map of the city to use as a storytelling tool and to visualize neighborhood level tree cover and urban heat impacts.
• Durham County Emergency Management updated its hazard mitigation plan with a section on heat informed by the campaign.

Test the campaign day routes in advance to ensure they are easy to follow. Also have backup equipment and batteries in case of equipment failure. 

Collaborate with local volunteer organizations to drive volunteerism and ensure a single voice for communicating with volunteers. Using different volunteers during each collection period — morning, daytime and evening — is helpful in engaging participants but can lead to inconsistent results. 

Conduct webinars before and after the campaign to raise awareness and educate community members.

EPA. (2022, September 02). Heat Islands and Equity. Retrieved from https://www.epa.gov/heatislands/heat-islands-and-equity

National Integrated Heat Health Information System. (n.d.). Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign Application. Retrieved from Heat.gov: https://www.heat.gov/pages/nihhis-capa-urban-heat-island-mapping-campaign-application