2020 Heat Mapping CAMPAIGN Data & REPORTS

This story map created by HARC explores why H3AT was formed, how the 2020 campaign was conducted, and provides a high level analysis of the results.


>>> We recommend starting here if you are unfamiliar with the campaign!

Discover Houston and Harris County's hottest places mapped during our 2020 heat mapping campaign. Type your address into the map and explore different map layers (observed temperature, or "traverse points"; modeled temperature; and modeled heat index), for the morning, afternoon, and evening of August 7, 2020. No ArcGIS subscription required.

For advanced, licensed ArcGIS Online users to more broadly interact with the results, bring in additional data layers, perform analyses, or pull these layers into other new or existing web maps.


Download Raster and Traverse Data from the 2020 Heat Watch campaign in Houston & Harris County.


Suggested Citation: CAPA/NIHHIS. (2020, December 3). Heat Watch Houston & Harris County. Retrieved from osf.io/yqh5u

This report was prepared by CAPA Strategies for the H3AT campaign and includes more information on key takeaways, methodology, and other campaign efforts.

H3AT One Page Results - December 2020_Final.pdf

This one page executive was prepared by H3AT partners to summarize the H3AT campaign.

Updates and milestones from the 2020 Heat Mapping Campaign are included in the One Year Report of Resilient Houston

CIty of Houston HEAT initiatives

H3AT is featured in the City of Houston's resilience strategy as sub-action 16.1: Launch an urban heat island mapping campaign, to make Houston neighborhoods greener and cooler to combat extreme heat.


The City of Houston’s Mayor’s Office released the Houston Climate Impact Assessment, to better illustrate how climate change will impact Houston’s future based on lower and higher scenarios of future climate change. The assessment, conducted by Anne Stoner and Katharine Hayhoe of ATMOS Research & Consulting, studied 25 separate future climate indicators, including the number of days with temperatures above 100 degrees, the number of nights above 80 degrees, total annual precipitation, days with precipitation above 4 inches, and the annual number of dry days.

Extreme Heat Takeaways: By 2050, if we do not curb our greenhouse gas emissions globally, we can expect...

  • the hottest day of summer will be 7 degrees warmer than today,

  • there will be 22 more days that exceed 100°F,

  • there will be 50 more nights that exceed 80°F, and

  • summers overall will be 55 days longer than today.

HARRIS COUNTY HEAT INITIATIVES

Harris County Public Health's Climate Program

Their Extreme Heat Vulnerability Assessment is the first of several climate vulnerability assessments the Climate Program has planned. Communities with the most exposure, the highest population sensitivity, and the least ability to adapt will be identified as the highest priority for public health interventions.

  • The Climate Program also developed a Heat Vulnerability Story Map that provides information about the vulnerability assessment process and why they looked at certain indicators.

  • Explore Heat Vulnerability Assessment Results here!

  • Learn how the Climate Program is using H3AT campaign data here!

harc's heat Initiatives

A Vegetative View: Mapping Harris County's Tree Canopy

The A Vegetative View: Harris County, Texas web-based mapping application was developed by HARC to visualize high-resolution vegetation canopy data. Use this application to explore where vegetation is present as well as how dense and tall it may be.

Learn more here.

New Research Study to Build on H3AT Data

The Desert Research Institute (DRI) and the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) announce the launch of a comprehensive extreme heat risk modeling project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to study and predict the risk of extreme heat within coastal communities.

Related research, Projects, and case studies

Live Map of Local Temperature via Synoptic's Data Explorer

Houston Region Heat Research and Tools