For some Boston neighborhoods, heat advisories come too late
Last August, Boston officials issued a heat advisory when temperatures and humidity were expected to reach dangerous highs. But some neighborhoods had already reached that threshold days before, according to newly released data from climate sensors installed across the city.
A team of researchers, local organizations and city officials presented the findings this week. The numbers raise questions about gaps in emergency planning, especially for areas with fewer trees to keep them cool.
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“ The times that we’ve set for the emergencies and the advisories don’t always align with the temperatures that folks are experiencing, especially in hotspot neighborhoods,” said Zoe Davis, a senior climate resilience project manager
for the city.
The sensors were installed as part of a pilot project known as B-COOL. It’s a collaboration between the nonprofit A Better City, The Boston Foundation, Boston University’s School of Public Health and Boston’s Office of Climate Resilience.
While prior heat mapping projects, like Wicked Hot Boston and the Boston Heat Plan, showed some neighborhoods are hotter than others, the new data provides more details about locations and the duration of exposure to heat, researchers said.
Residents in parts of Dorchester, for example, experienced heat advisory temperatures for two days before and after the city’s official declaration in early August. What’s more, during the period of the heat advisory, sensors recorded temperatures that indicated a more serious heat emergency.
Even within neighborhoods, there can be important differences from one spot to another. Temperatures recorded by a second Dorchester sensor never met the threshold for a heat emergency — or even a heat advisory — during that August heat wave.
The discovery of cool spots was a surprise to Johnathan Lee, a Ph.D. student in environmental health at Boston University and the lead researcher on the project.
“ Now that we have a better understanding of where some of our cool spots are, how can we really make the best use of those?” Lee said. The team expects to do more research will look at what is creating these cool spots and how well existing strategies are helping residents.
The effects of extreme heat on the body range from heat exhaustion to heat stroke, even death. Research has also found that deaths from heart disease and stroke likely increase during a heat wave.
To prevent the worst health outcomes, heat advisories and warnings trigger resources like opening cooling centers or sending medical help to different parts of the city.
For this project, the team focused on the neighborhoods identified in the city’s 2022 heat plan as most vulnerable, plus Allston-Brighton and Jamaica Plain.
Those neighborhoods experience more extreme heat than other parts of the city. They’re typically made up of communities of color and have a history of disinvestment, according to the heat plan.
It’s these neighborhoods that projects like this one should prioritize, said Isabella Gambill, assistant director of climate, energy and resilience for A Better City.
“ This kind of data will really inform future investment in different neighborhoods that are really on the front lines of heat stress,” Gambill said.
Davis said Boston officials hope to improve communication with residents in vulnerable areas. She said that includes getting people to sign up for Alert Boston, the emergency alert service.
City officials also plan to seek advice on how to improve protocols for heat advisories in the summertime, Davis said.
Patricia Fabian, an environmental health researcher at Boston University, said heat can be a silent killer.
It’s expected to get worse with climate change, making efforts like this vital for public health, Fabian said. Big cities like Boston used to see two heat waves a year on average during the 1960s. Now, that’s up to six heat waves a year on average.
“So it’s a problem that’s here, not just to stay, but it’s going to increase over time. And we need to be preparing for that. And to prepare for that, you need to have some information,” she said.