Heat Wave Calls For Hard Look At Industrial Heat Islands And Loss Of Farmland In Hillsboro

As Hillsboro and the rest of Oregon cool off, I reflect on my life here on this Earth and in this community.  Six decades is a long time.  For you younger readers, this heat wave was one in a series that you have grown accustomed to.  Maybe it is not out of the norm for you, even if we broke records once again.  But let me tell you that this is not how Oregon was or has been until the last few years.  Any disbelievers in Climate Change who are left are getting harder and harder to find.  One thing about the Sun: it fries us all equally and does not care what we believe or pontificate.

This is the 5th article I have written about the climate, heat islands, and the heat waves we are all suffering through.  Last August, I wrote a story covering the first Heat Wave of 2023.  You can catch that story here with links to our previous stories on Hillsboro’s growing Heat Islands.  While the climate is warming all over the Earth at accelerating rates, there are local causes that are contributing to the greater problem.  Hillsboro and its amazing industrial build-up are regional culprits for why the Portland Metro Area is heating up.  It is a problem now and will be a bigger problem in the future, impacting all of us locally, our children, the Region, and the Planet.

Our City Leadership does not mention these things nor even consider them seriously.  God forbid we were ever able to talk about them openly like adults or expect questions to be answered.  In recent years, some City of Hillsboro leaders have been actively meeting with landowners to the North.  All way beyond Hillsboro City limits. They have actively rezoned, made land deals, and lobbied our state to expand hundreds if not thousands of acres of farmland to future industrial.  In the name of “high-paying jobs,” the onslaught continues.  The jobs in recent years have really not shown up, but massive Data Centers have.  The areas North of Evergreen are quickly being transformed into one of the largest Industrial areas in the Pacific NW.

Putting all motivations, policies, goals, and objectives for doing this aside, we have to at least talk about the serious outcomes of this.  Heat Watch Portand Metro is an ongoing project being completed by several agencies to track the temperatures all around the Metro area.  Basically, the data was collected by a hundred volunteers who were equipped with sensitive equipment to collect thousands of data points.   The work was completed on July 20th, 2023.  In Hillsboro, the high temperature was 88 that day.  The results have been mapped and are being used to help us all understand what areas are hotter and which are cooler.  And there is no doubt that big buildings are a big problem when retaining heat and putting it off into the atmosphere.

Here is a view of Hillsboro from the map created from the data:

You can see Evergreen Road, Brookwood Pkwy., Century Blvd. These are the early AM Readings showing the Heat Index Model built by the Data. The dark orange-red is 64.5, and the cooler blues are in the 49.8 degree range and up.

Pulling in a little closer, we find Intel Ronler Acres Fab.

We recognize that the Ronler Acres Fab is one of the largest complexes on the West Coast.  Thousands of tons of cement, steel, glass, and pipe surely do stay hotter.  And it is not like these buildings are tens of degrees warmer.  It is a much smaller number.  But they all add up.  This map comes from the interactive map system  and is very eye-opening to review.  Now note that the cool blue area on the left, Dawson Creek Park, is adjacent to the Hillsboro Library.  Nice and cool with all that greenery and the ponds that are there.

Now, let’s look at the areas where Hillsboro’s future Industrial growth is happening.

The farmlands off of Meek Road, Sewell, Jackson School, and beyond are shown on this map in blue for the AM data layer and are reporting the high 40s or low 50s.  Intel is shown by the model to be between 60 and 65 at the same time.  The arrows have been added to generally point out where the City of Hillsboro is buying land, and lots of it, for industrial users.  It is possible that Hillsboro could get 1 to 3 additional semiconductor fabs, and we are certainly getting Data Centers in great numbers.  Once built, all these structures and their parking lots will be permanent heat islands that will emanate increased heat forever into our atmosphere.   Better data monitoring from space would likely show us some eye-popping numbers down to the street level on each property.  That will be coming soon.

Our previous research showed cooling techniques in Arizona and elsewhere with reflective paints, additional greenspaces near big projects, lighter-colored roads and buildings, grasscrete, and other permeable surfaces for walkways and access roads.  It will ultimately be crucial to Hillsboro and the region to replace every foot of lost open land with at least one foot of preservation or green space. That does not happen now at all and is not a priority.  It needs to be.  We must consider what we are doing as we heat up, build-out, and destroy our green areas.  It all adds up, and there is never a bad time to stand & speak up.  I want to enjoy Summer here in Hillsboro.  These last few days, there has not been a whole lot of that given the heat.  God, what will August look like!!!

We are part of the problem, and I, for one, say it is time to do something about it. Leadership, anyone? Do you have any thoughts? The Comments section below is wide open, and I hope you will jump in and lead a little bit. The Sun will be back tomorrow, so stay as cool as you can, everyone.

Now, you can try the new Map right here. To get the data to show up best, turn on some of the layers below.