Museum of Science Will Provide Technical Support to 2025 Community Science Partners Through the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring

The Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring (CCHM) has selected eleven Community Science Partners to collect vital data on local heat patterns. These data will help communities develop strategies to reduce heat-related illness and death, infrastructure damage, and other heat risks. 

The CCHM is a unique national partnership of science museums and technical experts. Over the next three years, the CCHM will work directly with 30 U.S. communities to co-create heat data collection projects. The CCHM expands upon the NOAA heat mapping work done by the NIHHIS-CAPA Urban Heat Island Mapping (UHI) Campaign Program, which has collected outdoor temperature and humidity data in more than 80 communities and 37 states. 

This year, Community Science Partners will have the opportunity to choose among several options for collecting data on extreme heat. Communities can select among collecting ambient air temperature data through a traditional mobile heat mapping campaign, collecting air quality data to understand the relationship between heat and air quality, collecting indoor air temperature data to understand thermal comfort in buildings, or collecting long-term data to understand changes in heat over time.

To develop their campaigns, communities will be supported by regional hubs based at science centers: Arizona Science Center, Museum of Life and Science (North Carolina), Museum of Science (Massachusetts), and Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. Communities will also receive support from CCHM technical partners, including AQUEHS Corp., CAPA Strategies, and Utah State University. 

The 11 communities selected as 2025 Community Science Partners are:

• Bridgeport, Connecticut
• Buffalo, New York
• Hawai’i County (The Big Island)
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Missoula, Montana
• Moab, Utah
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• New York City, New York
• Cherokee, North Carolina
• San Germán, Puerto Rico
• Yuma, Arizona

These communities represent nine U.S. states, one U.S. territory, and one community located on federally recognized Tribal lands. Two campaigns (Bridgeport and Missoula) will take place in states that have not previously been heat mapped.

The CCHM is one of two National Integrated Heat Health Information System (NIHHIS) Centers of Excellence focused on community heat resilience projects. NIHHIS, an interagency collaboration led by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help communities address extreme heat, will provide technical assistance to support the projects. Its companion center, the Center for Heat Resilient Communities, is based in Los Angeles and works with communities to develop locally-tailored heat resilience strategies.