Understanding Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke

The Climate Resilience Project strives to aid the Inland Northwest community in understanding extreme heat and wildfire smoke—why they are growing worse, who is most at risk, and how people can stay safe.

We have several completed, ongoing, or planned research and education initiatives to achieve this goal. 

True to our commitment of building a just society, the Climate Resilience Project intentionally pursues place-based, community-engaged research to inform our work in extreme heat and wildfire smoke resilience. We strive to center climate justice and equity as we plan data collection ranging from community surveys to symposium events. We believe the community members of the Inland Northwest best understand how their lives have been impacted by climate change and seek to understand their wide-ranging perspectives and experiences before charting a path to response. 

Urban Heat Island Mapping

2022 Summary Report - Spokane Heat Maps

The very first research initiative undertaken by the Climate Resilience Project in 2022 aimed to understand how heat varies across Spokane. The resulting maps demonstrating variations in extreme heat across Spokane and the following report showing correlations with race and income became the foundation of our justice-focused climate resilience work. Explore the urban heat island maps and the correlation report here.  

Community Surveys

The impacts of extreme heat and air quality smoke go beyond a temperature reading or air quality index. Through community survey instruments with a variety of scales, focuses, and locations, we seek to engage members of the Inland Northwest in sharing their lived experiences and how they would like to see us take action.

Community Symposiums

A facilitator stands at a round table listening to a smoke symposium participant share feedback

Using the established World Café Method for facilitating large group dialogue, we have hosted symposium events at the city and neighborhood level that gather professionals and guide them through conversations aimed at building connection and understanding on the topic of climate resilience.   

 

Educational Resources

A factsheet explaining how to avoid heat exhaustion in Spanish

Through partnerships with local organizations like Spokane Regional Health District and Spokane Regional Clean Air Agency, we develop heat and smoke health educational materials in multiple languages and work to distribute them to historically underserved community members. We've also developed interactive educational tools like smoke and heat Story Maps and the Cooling Resources Map. Additionally, we acknowledge that much thoughtful work around understanding heat and smoke in the Inland Northwest has already been done by others, and we continue to compile those resources to reference them throughout our work and make them accessible to our community members.