NoVA's Urban Heat Islands To Be Identified Through Citizen Scientist Mapping This Week

NORTHERN VIRGINIA, VA – Teams of citizen scientists are going to measure temperature and humidity along 30 routes in Fairfax and Arlington counties as well as the City of Alexandria as part of the Urban Heat Island Mapping Project.

In a release, the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, one of the project’s organizers, says more than 30 teams will be out taking the measurements on Thursday.

Subscribe

“This will be the most granular measurement of heat ever attempted throughout Northern Virginia,” Chris Topoleski, executive director of FACS, said in the release. “We know that neighborhoods with few trees and a lot of asphalt can be dangerously hot in summer. Once we’re done, we’ll know how hot these neighborhoods are.”

Urban areas with concentrated infrastructure and sparse greenery can trap heat and become noticeably warmer than other nearby locations.

The Urban Heat Island Mapping Project is a collaboration between FACS and George Mason University’s Virginia Climate Center.

The mapping will be done by teams of two or more people in a vehicle with a rooftop sensor, and data will be collected at three times over the course of the day, in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening. Data will be transmitted to GMY through a phone app.

The data will then be rendered into high-resolution heat maps that will show which neighborhoods are most in need of intervention. In the second phase of the project, the research will be shared with elected officials in hopes of informing policy decisions about heat-mitigating projects.

The CDC says extreme heat is one of the leading causes of weather-related deaths nationwide; other sources, including peer-reviewed scientific journals, name it as the leading cause of weather-related death.

Alexandria has programs underway to attempt to mitigate heat islands and maintains an Office of Climate Action.

In 2024, Virginia recorded more than 3,200 heat-related emergency room visits.

Find out more about the project here.