Houston ranks among the top 5 hottest metros in the nation

HOUSTON, Texas -- A new report takes the temperature of urban heat islands across the U.S., and Houston lands in the hotter-than-you-know-what category.

The report, released July 14 by the nonprofit news organization Climate Central, ranks Houston the fourth worst place among the country's urban heat islands. Houston sits behind New Orleans, holding down the No. 1 spot, with Newark, New Jersey, at No. 2 and New York City at No. 3.

"Even for a Houstonian, it's easy to think first of flooding or hurricanes when it comes to regional climate impacts, but increases in the daytime and nighttime temperatures at the rate we've seen since the 1970s can do as much - if not more - damage," the Nature Conservancy of Texas notes in a July 2020 news release.

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