Houston Harris Heat Action Team sends 100 volunteer scientists to map hottest parts of Houston area

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A local group is so concerned about temperatures in parts of Houston, it deployed 100 volunteers Saturday to figure out which areas are in most need of cooling down.

It's the Houston Harris Heat Action Team's second heat mapping project.

The previous one, carried out in 2020, identified Alief as Houston's hottest community. The group responded by planting trees along a median on Bissonnet earlier this year in hopes of providing the area more shade.

"When you have a concentration of concrete, black asphalt, and buildings, those areas heat up," Jennifer Irving with the Houston Advanced Research Center said.

Saturday's volunteers were given heat sensors, which they mounted in their car windows. They then drove for an hour at a time along predetermined routes, collectively covering 1,261 miles.

Monique Crawford spent the afternoon driving through Spring Branch, a possible future site for tree planting depending on what the data shows.

"Certain areas might have socioeconomic challenges, and if we can plant trees in that area, it would help reduce heating," Crawford said.

Now that the data has been collected, it'll take several months to process it.

The Heat Action Team expects to publish it in either October or November.

Data from the 2020 heat mapping project can be viewed here.

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