San Diego Heat Risk Explorer
Three pillars of heat risk
Heat Exposure
How much heat does this area face? Daytime and overnight air temperature, wet-bulb globe temperature, and satellite land surface temperature.
Population 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, health insurance, and housing quality.
Data sources
Heat Exposure
4 sources · 10 variables
The map shows one heat mode at a time: daytime heat, nighttime heat, humid heat (WBGT), or surface temperature.
- MesoWest / Synoptic Data (+ CIMIS), IDW to tract centroids · 7 variables
- NOAA HRRR 3 km analysis, WBGT via Liljegren/Dimiceli · 2 variables
- USGS Landsat (Collection 2 surface temperature) · 1 variable
- LOCA2 downscaled CMIP6 · climate projections for 2050 and 2080 (SSP2-4.5, SSP3-7.0, SSP5-8.5)
Population Sensitivity
6 sources · 48 variables
- CDC/ATSDR Social Vulnerability Index 2022 · 22 variables
- CDC PLACES (model-based small-area estimates) · 17 variables
- Healthy Places Index (HPI) 3.0 · 5 variables
- ACS 5-year, table C24030 (industry by sex) · 2 variables
- ACS 5-year, table B11007 (households by age) · 1 variable
- DOE LEAD Tool (2022) · 1 variable
Adaptive Capacity
7 sources · 23 variables
- Healthy Places Index (HPI) 3.0 · 16 variables
- ACS 5-year, table B25034 (year structure built) · 2 variables
- U.S. Census Bureau LACE 2023 · 1 variable
- Romitti et al. 2022, PNAS Nexus (modeled AC prevalence) · 1 variable
- ACS 5-year, table B25003 (tenure) · 1 variable
- SANDAG / SanGIS regional land use · 1 variable
- NLCD / MRLC land cover · 1 variable
Citation
If you use this tool, its methodology, or its derived data, please cite it as:
Mack, C., Hale, M., Gong, A., Berry, D., & Merrifield, M. (2026). San Diego Heat Risk Explorer (Version 1.0.0) [Computer software]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23960750
BibTeX and other formats are on the Zenodo record and under “Cite this repository” on GitHub.
Feedback
To submit a correction, comment, or feature request, email cjmack@ucsd.edu.