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How mapping 'heat islands' can help cities prepare for extreme heat
A thermal imaging device attached to an iPhone shows a range of temperatures with reds and oranges representing hot conditions. Some cities are mapping heat to better understand how to prepare for extreme temperatures.
Britny Cordera/KOSU
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A thermal imaging device attached to an iPhone shows a range of temperatures with reds and oranges representing hot conditions. Some cities are mapping heat to better understand how to prepare for extreme temperatures.
Britny Cordera/KOSU
Climate change, driven primarily by burning fossil fuels, pushed temperatures so high last year that scientists were astounded when 2023 became the hottest year on record. Communities like Oklahoma City are now preparing for a future with extreme temperatures by understanding which areas are the hottest.
Last year, Oklahoma City joined 14 other cities in a national project through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to map where heat lingers in neighborhoods. Oklahoma City’s Office of Sustainability, in partnership with the University of Oklahoma, and other environmental organizations, recruited volunteers to act as “citizen scientists” to help researchers gather key data.
Those citizen scientists attached air quality and heat monitoring sensors to their cars to take air and temperature readings of the hottest neighborhoods in Oklahoma City on an August day last year.
Understanding where heat pockets persist in communities is the first step to cooling those places down — and protecting residents from heat illness. Hongwan Li, an assistant professor in the College of Public Health at the University of Oklahoma, researches air quality and helped collect data last summer.
“If we want to take a deeper look for the heat stress like in our communities, community-based is the most appropriate way to understand the heat stress better,” Li said.
The data from the sensors last summer showed that downtown Oklahoma City was 15 degrees hotter than the outer edges of the city, like neighborhoods near Lake Stanley-Draper in the southeast.
Sarah Terry-Cobo, associate planner for Oklahoma City’s Office of Sustainability, led last year’s heat mapping efforts. She was surprised to find out that Mesta Park – with its large sycamore and oak trees that tower over houses – was one of the hottest areas in Oklahoma City.
“A more affluent area like Mesta Park has a lot of older tree canopy that’s intact,” Terry-Cobo said. “And that, you know, is still pretty hot compared to some of these other neighborhoods that we were expecting to be very hot.”
Air quality and heat mapping devices are attached to cars. Volunteers then drive a route to collect temperature and air quality data.
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Air quality and heat mapping devices are attached to cars. Volunteers then drive a route to collect temperature and air quality data.
Britny Cordera/KOSU
Trees don’t always provide enough cooling because heat gets trapped in roofs, roads, and sidewalks creating what’s called the urban heat island effect.
Terry-Cobo walked around downtown Oklahoma City that rainy, humid August day capturing thermal images on her phone. The high for the day reached 98 degrees.
The prairie habitat at the Myriad Botanical Gardens in Oklahoma City, for example, had cooler temperatures than the concrete that makes up the core of the city. Thermal imaging put the sidewalk at 93 degrees while tree shade was at 85 degrees.
“What we’re seeing right now in the Myriad Gardens is a great example of a potential cooling strategy for urban heat islands,” she said.
Cooling strategies can come from understanding the hottest parts of urban areas. Since 2017, NOAA has funded the Climate Adaptation Planning and Analytics Heat Watch program (CAPA) to help organize and provide the equipment and results to over 60 communities across the U.S. and internationally.
Joey Williams, the project manager for CAPA Heat Watch, said heat mapping started to help people learn about where extreme heat impacts their lives, and to help cities come up with strategies to address it.
“As the threat of heat continues to rise, people become more aware that heat is an issue and life threatening and it affects different people differently,” Williams said. “Having this kind of awareness that that’s an issue can be a lifesaver.”
Kansas City, Missouri used its heat mapping data from 2021 to understand where the city lacked tree canopy.
Andy Savastino, chief environmental officer with the city said that helped inform a new policy to preserve the city’s tree canopy.
“Now, any time a developer wants to come into areas where there is an old growth forest, our tree preservation ordinance, which we never had one before, applies so that there is a requirement for developers to replace a percentage of the trees they take down,” he said.
The city of Little Rock, Arkansas found during its heat mapping project last August that the hottest parts of the city didn’t cool off at night.
Lennie Massanelli, the sustainability officer for the city, said that meant temperatures in the morning were hotter than the afternoon.
“At the very beginning of the day, the 6 to 7 a.m. map showed the hottest pockets of Little Rock, where heat just kind of stayed in one place,” she said.
Oklahoma City’s heat mapping campaign found the city needs more trees and fewer parking lots to help cool off neighborhoods during the hottest months.
Oklahoma City’s sustainability office is developing a guide book this year to help city leaders determine the best ways to adapt to extreme heat. Terry-Cobo hopes that will include everything from changing zoning laws for parking to reclaiming native habitat wherever the city can — all in an effort to cool down some of the hottest parts of the city.
Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to give deposition Friday to a congressional committee investigating his links to Jeffrey Epstein, one day after Hillary Clinton testified before the committee and called the proceedings “partisan political theatre” and “an insult to the American people”.
During remarks before the House oversight committee, Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, insisted on Thursday that she had never met Epstein.
The former Democratic president, however, flew on Epstein’s private jet several times in the early 2000s but said he never visited his island.
Clinton, who engaged in an extramarital affair while president and has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women, also appears in a photo from the recently released files, in a hot tub with Epstein and a woman whose identity is redacted.
Clinton has denied the sexual misconduct claims and was not charged with any crimes. He also has not been accused of any wrongdoing connected to Epstein.
Epstein visited the White House at least 17 times during the early years of Clinton’s presidency, according to White House visitor records cited in news reports. Clinton said he cut ties with him around 2005, before the disgraced financier, who died from suicide in 2019, pleaded guilty to solicitation of a minor in Florida.
The House committee subpoenaed the Clintons in August. They initially refused to testify but agreed after Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt.
The Clintons asked for their depositions to be held publicly, with the former president stating that to do so behind closed doors would amount to a “kangaroo court”.
“Let’s stop the games + do this the right way: in a public hearing,” Clinton said on X earlier this month.
The committee’s chair, James Comer, did not grant their request, and the proceedings will be conducted behind closed doors with video to be released later.
On Thursday, Hillary Clinton’s proceedings were briefly halted after representative Lauren Boebert leaked an image of Clinton testifying.
During the full day deposition, Clinton said she had no information about Epstein and did not recall ever meeting him.
Before the deposition, Comer said it would be a long interview and that one with Bill Clinton would be “even longer”.
CASE 0:26-cv-00107-PJS-DLM
Doc. 12-1 Filed 02/26/26
Page 5 of 17
and to file a status update by 11:00 am on January 20. ECF No. 5. Respondents never provided a bond hearing and did not release Petitioner until January 21, ECF Nos. 10, 12, after failing to file an update, ECF No. 9. Further, Respondents released Petitioner subject to conditions despite the Court’s release order not providing for conditions. ECF Nos. 5, 12–13.
Abdi W. v. Trump, et al., Case No. 26-CV-00208 (KMM/SGE)
On January 21, 2026, the Court ordered Respondents, within 3 days, to either (a) complete Petitioner’s inspection and examination and file a notice confirming completion, or (b) release Petitioner immediately in Minnesota and confirm the date, time, and location of release. ECF No. 7. No notice was ever filed. The Court emailed counsel on January 27, 2026, at 10:39 am. No response was provided.
Adriana M.Y.M. v. David Easterwood, et al., Case No. 26-CV-213 (JWB/JFD)
On January 24, 2026, the Court ordered immediate release in Minnesota and ordered Respondents to confirm the time, date, and location of release, or anticipated release, within 48 hours. ECF No. 12. Respondent was not released until January 30, and Respondents never disclosed the time of release, instead describing it as “early this morning.” ECF No. 16.
Estefany J.S. v. Bondi, Case No. 26-CV-216 (JWB/SGE)
On January 13, 2026, at 10:59 am, the Court ordered Respondents to file a letter by 4:00 pm confirming Petitioner’s current location. ECF No. 8. After receiving no response, the Court ordered Respondents, at 5:11 pm, to immediately confirm Petitioner’s location and, by noon on January 14, file a memorandum explaining their failure to comply with the initial order. ECF No. 9. Respondents did not file the memorandum, requiring the Court to issue another order. ECF No. 12. On January 15, the Court ordered immediate release in Minnesota and required Respondents to confirm the time, date, and location of release within 48 hours. ECF No. 18. On January 20, having received no confirmation, the Court ordered Respondents to comply immediately. ECF No. 21. Respondents informed the Court that Petitioner was released in Minnesota on January 17, but did not specify the time. ECF No. 22.
5
James Hickman holds a photo montage of the late Rev. Jesse Jackson before a public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
CHICAGO — A line of mourners streamed through a Chicago auditorium Thursday to pay final respects to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. as cross-country memorial services began in the city the late civil rights leader called home.
The protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate will lie in repose for two days at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition before events in Washington, D.C., and South Carolina, where he was born.
Family members wiped away tears as the casket was brought into the stately brick building. Flowers lined the sidewalks where people waiting to enter watched a large screen playing video excerpts of Jackson’s notable speeches. Some raised their fists in solidarity.
The casket with the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrives before a public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
Inside, Jackson’s children, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and the Rev. Al Sharpton were among those who stood by the open casket to shake hands and hug those coming to view the body of Jackson, dressed in a suit and blue shirt and tie.
“The challenge for us is that we’ve got to make sure that all he lived for was not in vain,” Sharpton told reporters. “Dr. King’s dream and Jesse Jackson’s mission now falls on our shoulders. We’ve got to stand up and keep it going.”
The Rev. Al Sharpton speaks as Jesse Jackson Jr. listens after the public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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Jackson died last week at age 84 after battling a rare neurological disorder that affected his mobility and ability to speak in his later years.
Remembrances have already poured in from around the globe, and several U.S. states, including Minnesota, Iowa and North Carolina, are flying flags at half-staff in his honor.
But perhaps nowhere has his death been felt as strongly as in the nation’s third-largest city, where Jackson lived for decades and raised his six children, including a son who is a congressman.
Bouquets have been left outside the family’s Tudor-style home on the city’s South Side for days. Public schools have offered condolences, and city trains have used digital screens to display Jackson’s portrait and his well-known mantra, “I am Somebody!”
People wait to enter the security checkpoint for the public visitation for the Rev. Jesse Jackson at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
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His causes, both in the United States and abroad, were countless: Advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues including voting rights, job opportunities, education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.
“We honor him, and his hard-earned legacy as a freedom fighter, philosopher, and faithful shepherd of his family and community here in Chicago,” the mayor said in a statement.
Next week, Jackson will lie in honor at the South Carolina Statehouse, followed by public services. According to Rainbow PUSH’s agenda, Gov. Henry McMaster is expected to deliver remarks; however, the governor’s office said Thursday that his participation wasn’t yet confirmed. Jackson spent his childhood and started his activism in South Carolina.
Details on services in Washington have not yet been made public. However, he will not lie in honor at the United States Capitol rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office.
The two weeks of events will wrap up next week with a large celebration of life gathering at a Chicago megachurch and finally, homegoing services at the headquarters of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition.
Family members said the services will be open to all.
“Our family is overwhelmed and overjoyed by the amazing amount of support being offered by common, ordinary people who our father’s life has come into contact with,” his eldest son, Jesse Jackson Jr., said before the services began. “This is a unique opportunity to lay down some of the political rhetoric and to lay down some of the division that deeply divides our country and to reflect upon a man who brought people together.”
The family of the Rev. Jesse Jackson arrives as Yusep Jackson wipes his eyes before public visitation at Rainbow/PUSH Coalition in Chicago on Thursday.
Nam Y. Huh/AP
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Nam Y. Huh/AP
The services included prayers from some of the city’s most well-known religious leaders, including Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich. Mourners of all ages — from toddlers in strollers to elderly people in wheelchairs — came to pay respects.
Video clips of his appearances at news conferences, the campaign trail and even “Sesame Street” also played inside the auditorium.
Claudette Redic, a retiree who lives in Chicago, said her family has respected Jackson, from backing his presidential ambitions to her son getting a scholarship from a program Jackson championed.
“We have generations of support,” she said. “I’m hoping we continue.”
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