It was a warm July morning in New York City, and at 6am on a Saturday, barely anyone was outside. But huddled in a lush community garden in the Bronx, a dozen volunteers were awake and ready to set out on an important fact-finding mission: are wealthier neighborhoods less burdened by heat?
Equipped with heat sensors, this group of citizen scientists were participating in a groundbreaking study: the first ever street level assessment of heat in New York City. The goal was to find differences in neighborhoods – which communities were relatively cool? Which were sweltering hot? – and map the city’s heat inequality.
