NOAA awards $700,000 to communities, academia for extreme heat planning, research

Community members brainstorm heat resilience strategies during a Las Vegas heat tabletop exercise in December 2022. Credit: Hunter Jones

Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced $700,000 to support extreme heat preparedness and response planning as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Ten communities have received a total of $200,000 for developing manuals for extreme heat response planning, and $500,000 in funding will go to Duke University’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub for heat policy research and outreach. 

Ten communities have each received a $20,000 prize for the Heat Tabletop Exercise Planning Challenge. The communities developed manuals outlining plans to run heat tabletop exercises that test local emergency heat response efforts through simulated scenarios. The exercises aim to bring state, local and tribal governments and community organizations together to determine how they can better collaborate during heat events, and assess their current heat action plans. Communities that received prizes excelled at identifying realistic scenarios, representing their whole community, showcasing creativity and maintaining high attention to detail.