Threat Mapping: Chicago’s Summer Heat Disparities

According to the National Weather Service, heat is the deadliest weather event, killing more people than hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and cold snaps each year. Some people die completely from heat stress, due to heat. In some people, heat exacerbates common chronic diseases such as asthma, heart disease, and diabetes.

In 1995, an infamous four-day heatwave killed an estimated 740 Chicagoans. An initial tally of more than 400 people and hundreds more died from heat-related exacerbations, according to an investigation by epidemiologists at the Chicago Public Health Service. The majority of deaths deemed preventable by federal health officials were in people without air conditioning.

“There will be more heat waves like the 1995 Chicago one,” said Elena Grossmann, director of the Climate Resilience Building Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “It will become a permanent reality.”

Climate change will increase the frequency and intensity of heat Waves, what urban dwellers face An additional risk arises from the urban heat island phenomenon, where anthropogenic environmental change causes temperatures to rise in metropolitan areas.

Even within city limits, temperatures are changing, putting vulnerable populations at greater risk. Local authorities and organizations in dozens of cities have joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program launched in 2017 to intervene where help is most needed. To map heat disparities and raise public awareness.

But according to NOAA, Chicago never applied. So the Tribune set out to identify which communities. assess whether the city government is doing all they can to help them survive before they may be at greater risk The next heat wave hits.

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To make local temperature trends accessible to Chicagoans, the Tribune worked with researchers at the Boston University Center for Climate Health to create a searchable map showing average summer surface temperatures across the city. .

>>> Find your address here

City officials are facilitating the use of six official cooling centers and other air-conditioned public facilities such as libraries during the heat advisory. But the Tribune’s research partners at Boston University found that a significant portion of the city’s most vulnerable neighborhoods, with the highest average surface temperatures, had no access to public air conditioning within an 80-minute walk.

>>> See where your cooling resources are

In identifying the hottest areas in Chicago, the Tribune found that data from regular temperature sensors on the ground, such as those at O’Hare and Midway airports, didn’t paint the full picture. Temperatures can vary from community to community and sometimes from block to block. The answer is data from passing satellites.

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