Widespread Race and Class Disparities in Surface Urban Heat Extremes Across the United States

Here we use remotely sensed land surface temperature measurements to explore the distribution of United States’ urban heating burden, both at high resolution (within cities or counties) and scale (across whole contiguous States). While a rich literature has documented neighborhood-level disparities in heat exposures individual cities, data constraints have precluded comparisons across locations. Here, drawing on anomalies during extreme summer events from all 1,056 US counties with more than 10 developed census tracts, find that poorest tracts (and those lowest average education levels) within county are significantly hotter richest educated) neighborhoods for 76% these (54% education); also higher Black, Hispanic, Asian population shares White, non-Hispanic areas each county. This holds large small spreads shares, 71% significant racial persist even when adjusting income. Although locations different histories contributed race- class-based geographies, physical features environments driving exposure gradients fairly uniform country. Systematically, disproportionate faced by minority communities due built-up neighborhoods, less vegetation, and—to lesser extent—higher density.