Category: Heat
Layer Cake of Risk Mapped for Five Bay Area Hotspots
Greenbelt Alliance worked with data and communities to identify 18 sites where social vulnerability, climate hazards and conservation priorities overlapped, then winnowed them down to five hot spots.
Making Shade Where There Isn’t Any
There are few trees and public spaces where residents can escape the unrelenting heat in the eastern Coachella Valley. A master plan for shade equity aims to change that.
LA Heat Officer Shares Lessons for Northern Neighbors
Marta Segura, California’s first Chief Heat Officer, talks with KneeDeep Times about making extreme heat a priority in Los Angeles.

All Stories
Layer Cake of Risk Mapped for Five Bay Area Hotspots
Greenbelt Alliance worked with data and communities to identify 18 sites where social vulnerability, climate hazards and conservation priorities overlapped, then winnowed them down to five hot spots.
Living with Climate Swings: Heat 101
The Bay Area’s mild weather is a liability for its residents in the face of growing heat risks from temperature swings to hotter nights. But what exactly makes the heat linger?
Making Shade Where There Isn’t Any
There are few trees and public spaces where residents can escape the unrelenting heat in the eastern Coachella Valley. A master plan for shade equity aims to change that.
LA Heat Officer Shares Lessons for Northern Neighbors
Marta Segura, California’s first Chief Heat Officer, talks with KneeDeep Times about making extreme heat a priority in Los Angeles.
Unpacking the Hold Up on Heat Protection for Indoor Workers
A long queue of indoor laborers pleaded with the Standards Board of the Cal OSHA last spring to implement long-awaited rules, developed almost five years ago, to protect workers from heat.
Homegrown Go-Tos for Chillin’
A North Bay mom shares tips on how to beat the heat without AC, from wet shirts to wet blankets, and surveys her friends for more.
Five Threats in Five Places
Coastal erosion in Pacifica, drought in Brentwood, fires in the North Bay, flooding in Union City, and urban heat in San Jose. Anissa Foster takes us on a revealing virtual tour.
Roaming Sacramento During the Hottest Week Ever
My sister and I joke that any temperature above 75 is too hot to leave the house. But I decided to venture outside during the heat wave after Labor Day to see how the people of Sacramento were faring.
Valley Cities Beat Back the Heat
In the capital region and Silicon Valley, two cities have been experimenting with cooler roofs, walls and leafy canopies. Turns out cooling measures in one spot help those downwind.
Muggy Days, Sleepless Nights
Climate modeling has shown that the extreme heat events in the state’s future will be accompanied by more humidity, making it hard for coastal residents, unaccustomed to heat, to chill.
Dryer Vents Blow Hot Air & Microplastics
New research confirms that air vents on tumble dryers – rather than washing machines – may be a leading source of microplastic fibers from clothing in the environment. The insidious little particles are being found, among other places, in ocean-caught fish, beer, and even fecal samples of newborn babies.
Trees Tell A Tale of Two Cities
Trees do far more than add shade and property value to a city block; they can remove harmful pollutants from the air, reduce flooding, and perhaps most crucially in a changing climate, they can reduce heat. A 2019 investigation by NPR found that Oakland’s poorer neighborhoods are almost universally hotter than its richer regions (in fact, the city had one of the strongest correlations between heat and income in the country).
