These maps accompany the following paper on U.S. risk perceptions of extreme heat events:

Howe, Peter D., Jennifer R. Marlon, Xinran Wang, and Anthony Leiserowitz. “Public perceptions of the health risks of extreme heat across U.S. states, counties, and neighborhoods.” 2019. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Available online at https://www.pnas.org/lookup/doi/10.1073/pnas.1813145116.

Additional maps and details available at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.

Using a 0 – 100 scale (where 0 = no perceived risk from extreme heat & 100 = maximum risk), this tool maps how Americans perceived the health risks of extreme heat events (heat waves) at the state and county level in the U.S. in 2015. Higher values indicate that people perceive greater risks from heat waves to their own health, the health of their families, and the health of their local communities.

Estimates are based on a statistical model of national survey data (n = 9,217) collected in summer 2015. People with higher risk perceptions were 1) more likely to think that a heat wave would occur in their community; 2) more likely to think that a heat wave, were it to happen in their community, would affect the health of themselves, their family, and others in their community; and 3) more worried about the effects of heat waves.

This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation Decision, Risk, and Management Sciences program (SES-145990), led by Peter D. Howe (Utah State University) and Jennifer R. Marlon (Yale University). The data are available via the Utah State University Digital Commons and also via the Open Science Framework Project Page.