Published on February 01, 2025
TUCSON, AZ.—On February 1st, the City of Tucson, University of Arizona and Pima County will host the second-annual Southern Arizona Heat Summit. The event brings together residents, state and national heat resilience experts, and community-based organizations to discuss and advance the implementation of the City’s Heat Action Roadmap, a key action item Tucson Resilient Together, the City of Tucson’s Climate Action Plan. Participants will focus heat discussions along five themes: Public Health and Healthcare, the Built Environment and Resilience Hubs, Community and Neighborhood Level Action, Workforce and Heat Protection, and Energy and Our Grid. This year’s recommendations will help identify and advance areas of crosscutting work in extreme heat. Last year’s recommendations were critical to informing Governor Katie Hobbs’ State of Arizona Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan. Data from the Tucson summit will be used to again guide this year’s state report, and begin cross-jurisdictional coordination on the 2025 heat season preparedness and response strategy.
“The Southern Arizona Heat Summit brings together residents, researchers and service providers as we continue implementing our Climate Action Plan. Communities in Tucson understand what their needs are and have been telling us for years how extreme heat is impacting their lives. Last year’s Summit was instrumental in gathering data and community input to advance our Heat Action Roadmap, Heat Worker Protection Ordinance and shape the first-ever State of Arizona Extreme Heat Preparedness Plan. The Southern Arizona Heat Summit is another way for us to come together to continue to push our climate work forward.” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero. The sessions are designed to engage residents and those actively focusing on collecting data, identifying successes, and understanding challenges to implementation. These discussions will provide valuable input to the City of Tucson on topics such as potential and existing sites for climate resilience hubs, best practices for evaluating the city’s recently adopted heat protection ordinance, and strategies for neighborhood-level heat preparedness and community cohesion, among other key areas. Events like the Southern Arizona Heat Summit bring together residents, nonprofit organizations, labor unions, business owners, healthcare professionals, planners, and climate experts. In addition to inviting residents, the City has reached out to emergency managers, heat-related practitioners to help our Southwest region better prepare for heat waves.