TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay was dealt yet another heat advisory Monday, and on those hot days, some parts of the city can feel even hotter than others.
"It's like a heatwave. Like going into an oven," said Arturo Farchakh, who works downtown.
"I feel like I need to take off whatever clothing I have in my office as soon as I step out," downtown worker Anahi Rodriguez agreed.
They said they've always felt the heat in downtown Tampa was different and they're not wrong. The area is what's known as a heat island.
"With all the pavements like the asphalt, it definitely makes sense," said Sean Nedbalski.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, heat islands are typically 1-7 degrees hotter than other areas during the day. At night, the difference is 2-5 degrees.
"Heat islands are these parts of the city that we know either by just standing there, boy, this is hot, or by using more complex data like LIDAR satellite imagery, showing where the land surface temperature is hotter than the surrounding areas," Whit Remer, the city's sustainability and resiliency officer.
Remer explains there's typically more concrete, asphalt, and cars in these areas. It's also lacking trees and shade.
"Not only are you getting hit, but the concrete is absorbing that heat and then radiating it out. So it's really a double whammy," he said.
The city is now partnering with the University of South Florida and the National Academies of Science to bring some much-needed relief to the communities feeling the heat the most, starting with East Tampa.
"We know that disproportionately, there are folks there that have a higher health risk than other parts of the city," said Remer.
That means more trees are coming into the areas. It's not just planting trees in the open spaces. The city is looking at adding trees in the medians between traffic flow.
There are a host of potential other options as well. Some include:
- Cooling roofs
- Reflective pavement
- Shade structures
- Splash pads and fountains
- Air-conditioned spaces to cool off
"When we started working on heat more than a year ago, it wasn't really in the public consciousness when we talk about the impacts of heat from climate change. People were just like, yeah, it's always hot. I think this summer has been a total game changer," Remer added.
Florida's Most Accurate Meteorology team crunched the numbers and determined that the city has had nine tied or new record-high days since March. July 2023 was the warmest July Tampa has felt since record-keeping began in 1892.
"If you go to Arizona like Phoenix, they have a lot of like large-scale awnings throughout all the streets, so we can definitely improve if something like that is implemented," said Nedbalski.
But it will take a while before we see the impacts.
"Unfortunately, I don't think our pilot project will get going until the end of fall, which here in Tampa, we know can still be very hot. But starting to measure some of those differences of the land surface area under the cooling area and not under the cooling area will certainly be some of the data that we're looking for. For this particular project. We're looking at planting trees under different types of conditions, some under powerlines, some along the school boundary property. So it's really a lesson in government about how to work with other partners, and how to figure out how to get trees in the right place at the right time," he explained.
