Museum of Science Will Provide Technical Support to 2025 Community Science Partners Through the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring (CCHM) has selected eleven Community Science Partners to collect vital data on local heat patterns. These data will help communities develop strategies to reduce heat-related illness and death, infrastructure damage, and other heat risks.
The CCHM is a unique national partnership of science museums and technical experts. Over the next three years, the CCHM will work directly with 30 U.S. communities to co-create heat data collection projects. The CCHM expands upon the NOAA heat mapping work done by the NIHHIS-CAPA Urban Heat Island Mapping (UHI) Campaign Program, which has collected outdoor temperature and humidity data in more than 80 communities and 37 states.
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring announces 2025 Community Science Partners
The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring (CCHM) has selected eleven Community Science Partners to collect vital data on local heat patterns. These data will help communities develop strategies to reduce heat-related illness and death, infrastructure damage, and other heat risks.
The CCHM is a unique national partnership of science museums and technical experts. Over the next three years, the CCHM will work directly with 30 U.S. communities to co-create heat data collection projects. The CCHM expands upon the NOAA heat mapping work done by the NIHHIS-CAPA Urban Heat Island Mapping (UHI) Campaign Program, which has collected outdoor temperature and humidity data in more than 80 communities and 37 states.
This year, Community Science Partners will have the opportunity to choose among several options for collecting data on extreme heat. Communities can select among collecting ambient air temperature data through a traditional mobile heat mapping campaign, collecting air quality data to understand the relationship between heat and air quality, collecting indoor air temperature data to understand thermal comfort in buildings, or collecting long-term data to understand changes in heat over time.
To develop their campaigns, communities will be supported by regional hubs based at science centers: Arizona Science Center, Museum of Life and Science (North Carolina), Museum of Science (Massachusetts), and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Communities will also receive support from CCHM technical partners, including AQUEHS Corp., CAPA Strategies, the North Carolina State Climate Office, and Utah State University.
The 11 communities selected as 2025 Community Science Partners are:
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Buffalo, New York
Hawai’i County (The Big Island)
Memphis, Tennessee
Missoula, Montana
Moab, Utah
New Orleans, Louisiana
New York City, New York
Cherokee, North Carolina
San Germán, Puerto Rico
Yuma, Arizona
These communities represent nine U.S. states, one U.S. territory, and one community located on federally recognized Tribal lands. Two campaigns (Bridgeport and Missoula) will take place in states that have not previously been heat mapped.
The CCHM is one of two National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Centers of Excellence focused on community heat resilience projects. NIHHIS, an interagency collaboration led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help communities address extreme heat, will provide technical assistance to support the projects. Its companion center, the Center for Heat Resilient Communities, is based in Los Angeles and works with communities to develop locally-tailored heat resilience strategies.
Media contact:
Ashton Merck, Program Manager for the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring
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Rising temperatures in Durham leaving many behind
Patricia Murray sat in her home office toward the end of a weeklong heat wave, the third for the year with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, describing how she keeps cool without air conditioning even as Durham’s summers get progressively hotter.
Patricia Murray sat in her home office toward the end of a weeklong heat wave, the third for the year with temperatures exceeding 90 degrees, describing how she keeps cool without air conditioning even as Durham’s summers get progressively hotter.
“When I know I’m going out in the afternoon, I’ll wring out [a towel] and put it around my neck,” said the spry 68-year-old, who also uses box fans and ceiling fans to push cooling breezes through her home. “I suggest if you don’t have air conditioning, that’s a lifesaver — got to have a ceiling fan.”
As heat-trapping pollution increases temperatures globally, and concrete and hardtop landscapes intensify heat in Durham and other cities, Murray’s strategies provide a snapshot of what it might take to survive for people who live on fixed incomes and can’t afford cooling.