The City of Scranton, along with NOAA and other local, regional, and state partners, will be participating in the NOAA Urban Heat Island mapping campaign for 2023 through a grant funded by NIHHIS through CAPA Strategies.
The City’s fire department, along with teams of local partners, will travel through designated neighborhoods in the morning, afternoon, and evening tomorrow, July 26, with heat sensors mounted on vehicles.
The sensors record temperature, humidity, time, and the volunteers’ location every second. CAPA’s end-to-end program, including sensor technology, analysis, modeling, and community engagement, allows communities to develop hyper-local descriptions of heat and strategize mitigation options specific to each community and its needs.
Urban Heat Island (UHI) mapping campaigns address 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.
Cities from past campaigns have used their heat island maps to implement tree planting strategies, inform communities of the location of new public transit shelters for cooling relief, develop heat action plans, educate residents and policymakers, and inform new research.
Contact: Scranton Fire Chief John Judge, jjudge@scrantonpa.gov
Last modified: July 26, 2023
