Imagine a street that is about 10 degrees cooler just because someone painted it differently. This isn't some far-fetched theory, but something that happened in Irvine, California, where city crews applied a reflective layer called cool pavement on a half-mile stretch of two connected streets. The temperatures recorded during August and September showed the treated asphalt street was roughly 7 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than the untreated street immediately next to it.
Irvine isn't the only city trying this. Phoenix has already coated more than 200 miles of streets since 2020, while San Antonio has invested a million dollars in testing the same concept in ten different neighborhoods. All three cities are trying to make summer more bearable as temperatures continue rising. According to a 2020 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, heat has quietly become one of the deadliest weather threats in America, being responsible for an annual average of 702 deaths during the period of 2004 to 2018. This alarming figure is one reason why various cities across the Sun Belt have started testing less expensive and faster means to reduce street temperature. Cool pavement, a light-colored coating sprayed directly onto regular asphalt, is one of the most talked-about fixes on the table right now.
