San Diego Heat Risk Explorer
Custom composite heat-risk map for every census tract in San Diego County.
Three pillars of heat risk
Exposure
How much heat does this area face? Air temperature, humidity, number of extreme-heat days, and satellite-measured land surface temperature.
Sensitivity
How vulnerable are the people living here? Age, chronic disease rates, social vulnerability, and environmental health.
Adaptive Capacity
What resources help residents cope with heat? Air conditioning access, tree canopy, income, healthcare access, and housing quality.
Data sources
- Weather stations: MesoWest / Synoptic
- Land surface temperature: USGS Landsat
- Chronic disease: CDC PLACES
- Social vulnerability: CDC SVI 2022
- Healthy Places Index: HPI
- AC prevalence: Romitti et al. 2022, Ahn et al. 2025
- Demographics & housing: ACS 5-year estimates
- Climate projections: LOCA2 downscaled CMIP6
