July 12, 2016 by Kathleen Culliton

Harlem Heat Project Puts Sensors in Field

The Harlem Heat Ambassadors received training in how to use their brand new heat sensors at the WEACT offices in Harlem on Saturday. (Kathleen Culliton)

Tiny sensors were handed out at a workshop Saturday, where Harlem residents volunteered as citizen scientists to gather indoor heat measurements this summer. (Kathleen Culliton)

The Harlem Heat Project placed its first batch of its heat index sensors in the field on Saturday, when journalists, scientists and Harlem residents serving as citizen scientists gathered at the headquarters of the project’s community partner WE ACT to share insights about the problems of urban heat, and to receive training on how to use the DIY sensors.

Throughout the summer, AdaptNY and its media partners WNYC and iSeeChange will investigate how the urban heat island effect affects Harlem residents, providing them a platform to tell their stories and the tools to collect their own data.

The news partnership’s reporters, scientists and data-miners will be working with residents, dubbed ambassadors for their role in seeking out additional Harlem participants, to find out just how hot it is in indoor Harlem residences lacking air conditioning.

At the workshop, each of 15 ambassadors received a mini-sensor, designed and built by WNYC’s Data News Editor John Keefe, which they will place inside their Harlem homes.

The sensors measure the time, heat and humidity every 15 minutes and log that data onto a microchip. When the chip gets filled up, the ambassadors will send in their data, which the project team will analyze and share publicly.

The workshop also gave AdaptNY editors and the rest of the team an opportunity to meet the project ambassadors and find out why extreme heat was a problem that mattered to them. For some people, like Emily Hills, it was about justice. 

But for others, extreme heat is personal.

We’ll be telling our ambassador’s stories here at AdaptNY, on WNYC and through iSeeChange all summer long. Stay tuned.

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