In the next few days, we will be exposed to the first big-time Heat of 2023. While many of us prayed and hoped for a year without extreme heat, we all knew it was coming. We wish all of you a safe few days ahead and that you hydrate and stay cool. Below is a map of all the parks in Hillsboro that have Spray Grounds and water stations, click the map for a link to the interactive page.
Here is another great thing- cooling stations and an overnight shelter have been set up in Hillsboro!
While we can not stop the Sun from bearing down on us, we can do our part to keep our community from absorbing its power and releasing it into the air all night long. The Heat Island effect is something that scientists have determined is a reality- we are making our communities hotter because of the things we do. All night long in areas of Hillsboro, millions of square feet of concrete and metal buildings off-put heat, raising the temperature in those areas and making it difficult for them to cool down. It does not take a genius to know that Intel and dozens of massive data centers located in Hillsboro’s North edge are a part of this problem. There are policies we can implement, like requiring white or light-colored roofs and parking lots, but that would require political savvy, which seems to be missing right now around here.
A year ago, we featured a story about the Heat Island effect, and I went out and measured parking lots and hard surfaces all over the City. This was revealing and worth another look!
Stay cool folks – we are headed for Fall soon. We can get there without any heat-related tragedies if we all work together and look our for each other.
Here are the two stories we wrote covering the Heat Island effect.
Hillsboro Quickly Becoming A Regional Heat Island As Massive Construction Projects Boom
