Nashville’s new heat map predicts what changing climate might look like - WKRN News 2
Nashville, TN's new heat map predicts what changing climate might look like
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — With a changing climate, scientists warn that the kind of heat we’re experiencing this week could become more routine. To prepare, Nashville created its first heat map, which the public is urged to check out.
Rising sea levels, stronger hurricanes, and drier deserts — cities around the globe are preparing for what the future might hold. For Nashville, officials are afraid of more extreme heat days like those we’ve dealt with lately.
“We’re feeling it all currently,” said Kendra Abkowitz. “We know that extreme heat is going to be our most intense effect associated with climate change.”
Abkowitz is Nashville’s chief sustainability and resilience officer. Her team created an interactive urban heat map for Davidson County, showing which neighborhoods are most at risk for extreme heat, and they are often the lowest income.
“To my knowledge, this is the first time we’ve done that,” she said.
Dozens of volunteers scoured 100 square miles of Nashville to collect temperatures last year. Those heat measurements were combined with other data, like public health, income, and race, to show which neighborhoods suffer the most on a hot day.
According to the Tennessee Department of Health, there were more than 3,000 heat hospitalizations from 2010 to 2021 in Davidson County alone.
“I think one of our primary goals with this story map and this tool is to better educate the public on this concept, and to become more informed so that each individual, and collectively as a city, we can take the steps we need to to be better prepared for dealing with extreme heat,” Abkowitz explained.
Solutions range from planting more trees in certain neighborhoods, knowing the symptoms of heat stroke, or checking on an elderly neighbor who might be vulnerable.
Abkowitz said she hopes the new heat map gets people thinking what life will be like if hot days happen more frequently. “This weather is going to be something that we’re going to become more familiar with in the future,” she added.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) selected Nashville for this heat study. City leaders hope to continue taking measurements.
To learn more about the data behind the Nashville heat map, as well as actions you can take to prepare for extreme heat, follow this link.
Don’t forget to take the power and reliability of the WKRN Weather Authority with you at all times by downloading the News 2 Storm Tracker app.
Related Knowledge Center: Climate science
What began as a theory in the 1890s — that industrial emissions of carbon dioxide could increase global temperatures — had progressed to a scientific fact a century later. Scientists across a range of disciplines are studying the impact of the still-growing concentration of carbon dioxide and other so-called “greenhouse gases” in the atmosphere as they call for industrial and governmental policies to slow, then halt, the warming of the planet.