By Houston Mayor's Office
January 5, 2021 — On August 7, 2020, the Houston Harris Heat Action Team (H3AT)—a collaboration between Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC), the City of Houston, Harris County Public Health (HCPH), and The Nature Conservancy of Texas (TNC) – held a one-day urban heat island mapping effort with the help of 84 community scientists, and funding support from Lowe’s and Shell. The effort was part of the 2020 Heat Watch program led by CAPA Strategies
and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and it resulted in a total of 320 square miles of Houston and Harris County being mapped by local residents. To collect the data, participants attached specially designed thermal sensors to their vehicles and traversed selected routes at three designated periods of time (6-7 AM, 3-4 PM, and 7-8 PM).
