Portland metro heat map to help future response to dangerous heat waves
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — There's a new Portland metro project focused on keeping people safe from unhealthy and sometimes deadly heat. Officials now have a heat mapping tool to help them make decisions during extreme heat events.
This is the world's largest study of its kind and the results clearly show heat was not experienced equally throughout our region. After the deadly heat dome of 2021, Multnomah County experts said this map is a critical tool to help inform planning decisions and do better in the future.
"We learned some hard lessons during that event, and it showed us just how susceptible to heat we are. We lost dozens of beloved community members across the metro area," said Multnomah County’s Healthy Homes Communities Program Manager Brendon Haggerty. "And climate change is making it more likely that we will experience another event like that in the future."
With the tri-metro area experiencing 70° temperatures in spring and summer around the corner, Haggerty said results of the heat mapping project will help inform responses from Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties.
To map heat disparities in our region, last June 125 volunteers attached temperature recording equipment to car antennas while driving designated routes, covering more than 400 square miles.
“What we found is a 17° difference between the hottest and the coolest places,” said Multnomah County's Healthy Homes Communities Program Manager Brendon Haggerty. “And for some people, that can be the difference between life and death, or going to the emergency room or feeling safe and cool enough in their homes."
According to the study, suburban areas near highways and places with fewer trees and more pavement had higher relative temperatures in places like Portland’s Lents Neighborhood, Mall 205, Portland International Airport, and East Multnomah County’s Tualatin and Wood Village. In contrast, rural places with more tree canopy, like Forest Park, experienced lower temperatures.
"Even just sitting in our car from the morning to the last map shift we noticed how hot it was," said J’reyesha Brannon, one of the volunteers of the study. "This is just the start of climate emergency. It's not happening slowly, it's upon us now," said J’reyesha Brannon, one of the volunteers of the study.
She explained she was eager to help after seeing the devastating impacts of the 2021 heat dome.
"People being unresponsive, and the death, and really traumatic things that were happening because of the heat. And so, if there's any way data community engagement that could help better prepare us for the future," Brannon said.
72 heat deaths were recorded in Multnomah County in 2021, 69 of which were caused by the heat dome in June.
“As climate change continues to affect our local communities in new ways, we must continually review our response and look at data at the neighborhood level to make sure our vulnerable communities are protected,” said Haggerty.
The new data will be used to help outreach workers prioritize resources for those most at risk of extreme heat. It will also help guide climate adaptation plans, transportation, construction and tree-planning in the future. An interactive map made from the study's data was released by Multnomah County.