Park Slope · Carroll Gardens · Cobble Hill · Gowanus · Red Hook · Columbia Waterfront
Places to cool off during hot weather: cooling centers (libraries, older adult and community centers), outdoor pools, spray showers, and waterfront. Many centers open only when the City declares a heat emergency. Confirm at NYC Cool Options or call 311.
On Wednesday, when the calendar flips to July, heat indices are expected to climb above 100° and could reach 109° by Friday. Those are dangerous conditions, and now is the time to make a plan to stay safe.
That said, it already feels hot. It reached 89° outside my office in Cobble Hill today, and I'm thankful for air conditioning. NPR described what we're heading into as a "heat dome." I don't remember hearing that term before, but it basically means several days of intense heat, high humidity, and very little overnight relief, so I figured it was worth mentioning.
With the Mayor announcing a heat emergency this week, I thought it was a good excuse to dig into something I've been curious about for a while. I spent some time exploring the City's heat data and built a page around it. I'm not a climate scientist (unless a lapsed political scientist counts), just someone who enjoys making public information a little easier to understand.
The page includes:
One thing that surprised me is that about four-fifths of CB6 sits above the citywide average for surface heat. The hottest areas are concentrated in Gowanus and Red Hook, while two of the biggest sources of cooling in our sphere of influence aren't actually inside the district at all: Prospect Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park.
If you don't have air conditioning at home, please consider staying with family or friends or visiting one of the City's cooling centers. Official heat safety information is available at nyc.gov/beattheheat or by calling 311.
As always, this project is focused on Brooklyn Community Board 6, but everyone is welcome to use it, explore the maps, and ask questions, no matter where you are.
Places to cool off during hot weather: cooling centers (libraries, older adult and community centers), outdoor pools, spray showers, and waterfront. Many centers open only when the City declares a heat emergency. Confirm at NYC Cool Options or call 311.
Sites: NYC Facilities Database, NYC Parks Pools & Spray Showers (Open Data). Live activation: NYC Cool Options. Pool season June 27–Sept 13, daily 11am–7pm (closed 3–4pm for cleaning). Status is best-effort and may differ from live conditions.
This map shows how much hotter or cooler each part of the district runs compared to the citywide average, using USGS Landsat 8 satellite imagery. Tap the map to pan or zoom; otherwise scroll right past it.
With the Mayor announcing a heat emergency this week, I figured this was as good a time as any to take a closer look at something I’ve been curious about for a while. I spent some time digging through the City’s heat data and did my best to break it down into something that’s hopefully useful. I’m approaching this as a layperson, not a climate scientist, so if I’ve missed something or you have additional context, I’d genuinely love to hear from you.
One thing that immediately stood out to me is that about four-fifths of Brooklyn Community Board 6 sits above the citywide average for land surface temperature. The hottest areas are concentrated in the industrial sections of Gowanus and Red Hook, where tree canopy is limited. If you’re curious about a particular block, just click or tap anywhere on the map to see its reading.
The three coolest places within Community Board 6 are all in Red Hook.
The thing I found most interesting is that Community Board 6’s two biggest cooling assets aren’t actually inside the district.
To me, that’s really what this map shows. Heat isn’t distributed evenly, and neither is access to cooler places. A few blocks can make a meaningful difference.
The data comes from USGS Landsat 8 satellite imagery collected during the summer months, with cloud cover removed and multiple years averaged together. The New York City Council Data Team processed the imagery into differences from the citywide average and smoothed the results over roughly one and a half long city blocks. I’ve clipped that dataset here to the Brooklyn Community Board 6 boundary.
One final note: this map shows land surface temperature, not the air temperature in your weather app. Asphalt, rooftops, and other hard surfaces can become much hotter than the surrounding air, so think of this as a map of where heat is absorbed and stored.
As I mentioned above, the closest thing I have to a science background is political science. I put this together because I found it interesting and thought others might too. If you spot something I missed or have additional insight, please let me know.
Mike Racioppo
The city's Heat Vulnerability Index (HVI) rates every neighborhood from 1 to 5 for how likely residents are to get sick or die during a heat wave. It is built from things that make heat more dangerous: how hot the streets get, how little tree cover and green space there is, how many homes lack air conditioning, and how many residents are low-income or are groups the city has found face higher heat risk. 1 is the lowest risk. 5 is the highest. It describes a whole ZIP area, not a single building.
The map shades every NYC ZIP area by its score. The orange outline is Brooklyn Community Board 6.
Source: NYC DOHMH Heat Vulnerability Index by 2020 ZCTA and Modified ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (Open Data). A lower score is not no risk; extreme heat is the deadliest weather hazard in New York. If it is hot and your home is too warm, use the cooling options above.