The national award winning Southern Nevada Urban Heat Mapping Project has come to an end and the results are hot … no pun intended. The RTC, local partners and more than 60 community volunteers came together last summer to study the impacts of extreme heat across the valley. Equipped with special sensors, volunteers drove pre-mapped routes throughout the valley to collect data.

The study revealed that neighborhoods with the hottest temperatures are largely located in and around downtown Las Vegas, downtown North Las Vegas, the Historic Westside, and the eastern area of the valley.

What’s to come? Thanks to these results, the RTC is able to use the data to help Southern Nevada implement ways to alleviate heat-related issues in our communities.

Efforts include the installation of “slimline” transit shelters to protect waiting passengers from the sun and provide more lighting at night, creating greater visibility and added security benefits. More than 100 slimline shelters will be installed in the valley over the coming year, with more than 80 percent located in and around locations that comprise the hottest 30 percent of the valley. The RTC will also add more than 50 traditional transit shelters throughout the same areas.

For the full details of the results as well as an interactive map showing the distribution of heat in our region, visit https://bit.ly/3UcaPQr.