Your Urban Heat Island Score

Climate Central has mapped out the urban heat island hot-spots in 65 major U.S. cities. Each city map on Climate Central's Urban Heat Hot Spots shows an Urban Heat Island (UHI) Index score for each census tract, revealing where UHI boosts temperatures the most and least in each city.

As well as providing individual UHI maps for 65 cities Climate Central has also released a national interactive map which shows how much additional heat communities across the country face due to living in a built environment. The UHI Index score for each city census tract is based on an estimate of how much the urban environment increases temperatures. The estimate is based on local factors such as land cover types (green spaces, paved etc), building height and population density. 

 

Urban heat islands are areas of towns and cities which can become unbearably hot, especially on days with extreme heat. These areas can often become 10-20 degrees warmer than other areas in the very same city. A lack of trees and tree cover in cities is one of the biggest causes of urban heat islands. Urban heat islands tend to occur in areas with the densest built environments and with very little shade provided by tree canopy cover.

The US Tree Equity Score map can help you to quickly determine those neighborhoods in your city that are most in need of increased tree canopy cover. If you click on a neighborhood on the Tree Equity Score map you can discover its 'tree equity score', the current percentage of tree canopy cover, and the local levels of air pollution. The 'tree equity score' uses a range of factors to calculate "how well the benefits of trees are reaching communities living on low incomes and others disproportionately impacted by extreme heat, pollution and other environmental hazards."