After another historic — and dangerous — summer, are we ready for hotter years to come?
State officials couldn’t have predicted it, but they chose the perfect day to unveil a draft of their Extreme Heat Action Plan.
It was July 10, smack in the middle of a brutal heatwave of 90-degree-plus days. One speaker at the online event lost power at her home and had to make her presentation from her phone. Another presenter, Peter Chichetti of the Office of Emergency Management, spoke from the Emergency Operations Center, which was monitoring 36 tornado warnings, the most in the state’s history.
Mark Lowery of the Office of Climate Change noted that the hot and dangerous weather “will only become more frequent, severe and longer as the climate continues to warm.”
Next weekend marks the end of what was officially the most humid summer in our nation’s history, a season punctuated by the constant drumbeat of meteorological records being broken. Last month was the hottest August ever recorded. Same for June. July 2024 tied with July 2023 as the hottest July ever, but this year’s contained Earth’s hottest recorded day on July 22. “These past two weeks have been particularly brutal,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said at the time.
The ever-increasing heat is not only uncomfortable but dangerous. “Extreme heat has a deep public health impact,” said Leo Bachinger of the Office of Climate Change. “It kills more people across the U.S. than any other extreme weather hazard.”
The state’s projections show that, unless the world manages significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions over the decades to come, days in which the heat index hits 130 degrees in our area are not out of the question by 2080.
New York has launched an ambitious plan to reduce 85 percent of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, from their 1990 levels. But even if that can be achieved, the state is going to get hotter, scientists say. The amount of suffering will depend on reducing emissions globally and mitigation locally. The state’s Extreme Heat Action Plan outlines 49 steps over the next six years. Here’s a closer look at six:
No. 3: Extreme heat maps and capital projects
A 90-degree day doesn’t mean what it used to. “The thermostat doesn’t reflect how our body experiences heat and how our bodies can deal with extreme heat,” said Bachinger. If it’s humid, the body has difficulty regulating its internal temperature because sweat doesn’t evaporate into humid air as quickly. Hotter air can hold more moisture, making it more humid. That means global warming can lead to global humidity.
The heat index, which considers air temperature and relative humidity, is a more accurate way to gauge what it feels like outside. There’s also the Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature, measured by wrapping a thermometer in a wet sock, putting it outside and seeing how long it takes to dry. That measurement incorporates wind, air pressure and solar radiation, the latter of which can be affected by cloud cover.
Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature, developed by the military to determine heat risks, hasn’t caught on with the public. The Extreme Heat Action Plan recommends that both measures become a routine part of weather maps.
It also recommends weather maps incorporating factors such as the Urban Heat Island effect. In heavily paved areas with little greenery, pavement and concrete absorb sunlight all day before releasing it at night. That can lead to drastically different temperatures between neighborhoods.
“If we can understand where some of those concentrations of high heat are, and where some of those vulnerable communities are that have disproportionate exposure to extreme heat, we can make sure resources go where they’re most needed,” said Bachinger.
No. 9: Support passive, resilient and safe cooling
Air conditioning can be a lifesaver as temperatures soar, but it has drawbacks. The drain on the electrical grid increases the risk of blackouts and brownouts during heatwaves. The emissions generated by AC units also contribute to climate change.
In addition, researchers at Arizona State University have found that AC can make it hotter. In neighborhoods where everyone runs their air conditioners, the heat being blasted from living spaces can raise the temperature outside by as much as 2 degrees, making it even hotter for everyone who doesn’t have air conditioning.
Bachinger said that prompts the question: Can we cool communities without air conditioning?
Ideas may emerge from a $5.5 million Innovations in Green Cooling for Extreme Heat challenge organized by the New York State Energy and Research Development Agency (NYSERDA). The design contest hopes to solicit tools, technologies and strategies for “nature-based approaches to passive cooling,” especially in poorer communities. Broad examples of green infrastructure to promote cooling include street trees, rooftop gardens, “green walls” covered in living vegetation and urban wetlands.
No. 12: More cooling centers
New York State maintains a searchable online database of cooling centers, although it appears outdated. Beacon’s only cooling center — the Howland Public Library on Main Street — does not appear on it.
Ben Swanson, the secretary to Mayor Lee Kyriacou, said the city has opened its recreational facilities and partnered with the Salvation Army for cooling centers, but everyone goes to the library, which is more comfortable and has internet access. With more severe heat expected, members of the City Council have discussed designating additional sites.
Heat App
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration offer a Heat Safety Tool phone app that calculates the heat index and provides recommendations. See bit.ly/heat-safety-app. It notes that heat index values were created for shady conditions with a light wind, so exposure to full sunshine can increase them by up to 15 degrees.
Bachinger said malls and other businesses can be cooling centers — anywhere that is familiar and where you might go anyway, like pools and parks and other public spaces.
At the Office of Climate Change, Lowery said one of the challenges with cooling sites anywhere in the state is that few are open 24/7. That’s a problem especially because summer nights aren’t as cool as in the past. When night temperatures don’t dip below 90 degrees, like in Las Vegas, our organs don’t get a chance to recover from the daytime heat. Instead, the heart keeps directing blood to the skin to cool it.
“It used to be that you could open the windows at night to cool the house, and that cooling might last you through the day,” Lowery said. “Increasingly, that doesn’t work anymore.”
Other potential effects of the increasing heat: More generators will be needed to keep centers cool through extended power failures caused by increasingly powerful and frequent summer storms, and emergency service workers and volunteers will need to roam city streets during the summer as well as the winter to coax unhoused people to take shelter during extreme weather.
No. 13: Expand access to swimming
This year, Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a program that hopes to reverse a decades-long decline in public swimming pools and beaches. The state offered $90 million to communities to construct, reopen and renovate pools, hire lifeguards and offer swimming lessons.
The state is also testing a filtered, floating pool in the East River to see if they might work in lakes and rivers throughout New York. A promotional rendering showed a prototype floating near the site of the River Pool in Beacon. Including that pool, there are only four public places to swim in the Hudson, compared to 200 beaches on the Long Island Sound.
Building more pools in urban areas, especially coupled with green infrastructure such as parks and tree cover, can counter the Urban Heat Island effect, Bachinger noted. “We know that communities affected by racist practices like redlining already have disproportionately fewer green spaces and pools,” he said. “This can lessen the cooling burdens in those communities.”
No. 18: Prevent work injuries
The state advises employers to use the heat index rather than air temperature to determine the dangers of working outside, and to provide constant access to water and shade when the heat index is above 80 degrees and 15-minute breaks every two hours when it’s over 90 degrees.
The Biden administration has proposed rules that are like the state’s guidance and also require newly hired outdoor workers, whose bodies may not have acclimated, to work fewer hours until they adjust. The federal guidelines will become law in 2026 if they survive industry opposition and political pushback. The governors in Texas and Florida recently eliminated rules that required water breaks.
Heat Warnings
The National Weather Service defines a heatwave as three consecutive days when the air temperature reaches 90 degrees and excessive heat as a heat index of 105 degrees for at least two hours. A heat advisory is issued when the index is expected to reach 95 degrees for two days or 100 degrees at any time.
Lauren Kaplan, the associate director of farmer training at the Glynwood Center for Regional Food and Farming in Philipstown, said that apprentice farmers are taught countermeasures against the heat. That means frequent water breaks and learning to identify the early signs of heatstroke and exhaustion. More Hudson Valley farmers are starting earlier in the day, heading inside during the afternoon and resuming work in the evening. They also schedule days off to avoid heatwaves and poor air quality.
However, the harvest waits for no one. “Even if people are getting heatstroke and it’s hot, and people need to go home, how do you get your work done?” Kaplan asked. “We need more resources.”
No. 21: Subsidize cooling
The state’s Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) helps lower-income families pay their heating bills, but it’s also available in the summer and for air conditioners and fans that were provided this year to about 9,000 state residents. “Many people either can’t afford an air conditioner or can’t afford to run it,” said Bachinger. To that end, officials also hope to add AC units as a benefit to the state’s health insurance plan.
