Heat briefing, district
SI01
In brief
The surface of this area ran 1.1°F warmer than the city's land average over 18 clear summer Landsat images (surface temperature, not air temperature).1 27.8% of this area is under tree canopy and 51.4% is paved or built over on the city's 2017 land cover map.2 This area scores 2 out of 5 on the Health Department's Heat Vulnerability Index, a rank among neighbourhoods and not a measurement.3
Evidence
| Source | Finding | Figure | Tier | Data as of | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Behind the summary | |||||
| Landsat 8 and 9 Collection 2 Level 2 surface temperature (USGS) | Landsat measured the surface of this area (its parks and open land included) at 1.1°F warmer than the city's land average, over 18 clear summer images from 2023-07-23 to 2026-08-08, each taken at about 11:35 am Eastern Daylight Time; image by image it ran from 0.5°F cooler to 2.6°F warmer. In the latest image, on 2026-08-08, the surface here read 99.5°F against a city average of 97.9°F. This is the temperature of roofs, pavement and treetops seen from orbit on clear late mornings, not the air temperature a person feels. Summer surface temperature from Landsat, against the city's average Figure: +1.1°F against the city's land average | +1.1°F | Measured | 2026-08-08 | 1 |
| NYC Land Cover 2017 | New York City's 2017 land cover map (6 inch, from LiDAR and aerial imagery) shows that 51.4% of this area is paved or built over and 46.2% is green (27.8% tree canopy); the rest is 1.8% water. NYC Land Cover 2017 (6 inch), tree canopy and paved share Figure: 27.8% tree canopy, 51.4% paved or built (2017) | 27.8% tree canopy | Measured | 2017 | 2 |
| NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene | The NYC Health Department's Heat Vulnerability Index (2023, from 2016 to 2020 data) scores Staten Island community district 1 at 2 out of 5; its neighbourhoods score Port Richmond 4, Tompkinsville-Stapleton-Clifton-Fox Hills 4, Rosebank-Shore Acres-Park Hill 3, St. George-New Brighton 3, Mariner's Harbor-Arlington-Graniteville 2, Westerleigh-Castleton Corners 2, West New Brighton-Silver Lake-Grymes Hill 1. The index ranks neighbourhoods against each other: the department says it "uses a statistical model to summarize the most important factors of neighborhood heat risk: surface temperature, green space, home air conditioning, and income". It is not a measurement of heat at an address, and the department says "All neighborhoods have residents at risk for heat illness and death". Of who heat harms most, the department writes that Black New Yorkers suffer disproportionate health impacts from heat "due to social and economic disparities", and that "These disparities stem from structural racism, which includes neighborhood disinvestment, racist housing policies, fewer job opportunities and lower pay, and less access to high-quality education and health care" (NYC Health Department, Interactive Heat Vulnerability Index). NYC Heat Vulnerability Index (Health Department) | 2 of 5 SI01 | Modeled | 2023-10-21 | 3 |
| Mapped hazards (Cornerstone) | |||||
| NYC Department of City Planning | The outline on the map is this area's boundary from the NYC Department of City Planning's 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas; a community district is drawn as the union of its tabulation areas, which approximates the district. Area boundary (2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas) | Measured | retrieved 2026-07-11 | 4 | |
| NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene | Residents of Staten Island community district 1 made 114 emergency department visits for heat illness in May to September of 2018 to 2022 (the five-year total), and the NYC Health Department gives an average annual age-adjusted rate of 18.3 per 100,000 residents against 6.0 citywide (from state hospital records). The count and the rate are separate figures in the department's file: for most community districts the count divided by residents and years does not give the printed rate, the file does not say why, and both are printed here as published. Visits are counted by where the patient lives, and only when diagnosed as heat illness. Heat illness emergency department visits by community district (Health Department) Figure: 114 visits, 18.3 per 100,000 a year | 114 visits | Measured | 2024-08-24 | 5 |
| Places and facilities (Keystone) | |||||
| NYC Parks | NYC Parks lists spray showers at 18 parks or playgrounds, 4 outdoor pools and 1 wading pool in this area (lists updated 2026-10-03 and 2026-09-15, copied 2026-10-05); the pools are Faber Pool, Lyons Pool, Maggie Howard Mini Pool, West Brighton Pool, West Brighton Wading Pool. Spray showers and outdoor pools run in summer only, and the list does not say whether one is working today. Cooling centers are separate: the city opens them only during a heat emergency and lists them then at finder.nyc.gov/coolingcenters (or call 311). NYC Parks spray showers and pools Figure: 18 spray shower sites, 4 pools, 1 wading pool | 18 spray shower sites | Measured | 2026-09-15 | 6 |
| Live readings (Touchstone) | |||||
| National Weather Service (NOAA) | The air at Newark Liberty, the nearest weather station (7.5 km away), was 72°F at 13:15 Eastern on 2026-10-05. This is the station's reading, not this area's. Latest air temperature at the nearest weather station Figure: 72°F at Newark Liberty | 72°F | Measured | fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC | 7 |
| NOAA Regional Climate Centers | At Central Park, the nearest long-record weather station (21.2 km away), the air temperature reached 90°F on 12 days in 2026 through 2026-10-04 and on 14 in 2025; a full year averaged 17 in 1991 to 2020. The highest reading of 2026 was 100°F on 2026-07-02, and the station's record is 106°F, set on 1936-07-09 (records from 1869). These are the station's readings, not this area's. Days at 90°F or above at the nearest long-record weather station Figure: 12 days at 90°F or above in 2026 (Central Park) | 12 days | Measured | fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC | 8 |
| Projections (Lodestone) | |||||
| National Weather Service (NOAA) | No active NWS heat advisory, watch or warning for this area, checked 2026-10-05 17:34 UTC. NWS active heat advisories, watches and warnings | Modeled | fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC | 9 | |
| National Weather Service (NOAA) | Over the next 7 days the National Weather Service expects daytime highs of 72°F this afternoon, 65°F Tuesday, 68°F Wednesday, 74°F Thursday, 71°F Friday, 69°F Saturday, 67°F Sunday in the 2.5 km grid cell at the centre of this area (issued 2026-10-05 09:10 Eastern); the highest apparent temperature it gives, which is the heat index when it is hot, is 74°F on Thursday October 8. The Weather Service's New York office issues a Heat Advisory when it expects the heat index to reach 95°F for two days in a row or 100°F at any time, and an Extreme Heat Warning at 105°F for two hours. The Weather Service wrote this for an area; it is not a prediction for a building. NWS seven-day forecast highs and apparent temperature Figure: high of 74°F forecast in the next week | high of 74°F | Modeled | fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC | 10 |
| NPCC4 | NPCC4 (2024) projects 38 to 62 days a year at or above 90°F in New York City by the 2050s and 46 to 85 by the 2080s, as its middle range (25th to 75th percentile), against 17 a year in 1981-2010 (a baseline that matches Central Park's record, not an airport's); the 90th percentile is 69 days by the 2050s and 108 by the 2080s. Days at or above 95°F go from 4 a year to 14 to 32 by the 2050s and 17 to 54 by the 2080s, and heat waves from 2 a year to 5 to 8 and then 6 to 9. The ranges pool 16 climate models and two emissions scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5), and are for the city as a whole, not for a neighbourhood. NPCC4 (2024) extreme heat projections | Modeled | 2024 | 11 | |
Experimental sources (1)
| Source | Finding | Figure | Tier | Data as of | Cite |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NYC land-cover model (Riprap, experimental) on Copernicus Sentinel-2 Experimental | Experimental: a satellite land-cover model estimates that 53.9% of this area is paved or built over and 43.6% is green (17.4% tree canopy), on Sentinel-2 scenes from 2026 (1.8% water); no change between years is read from it. Limits: it estimates the share of each 10 m satellite pixel that is canopy, grass, paving, roof, water or bare ground, learned from the city's 2017 six-inch map, so detail finer than about 30 m is blurred and a tree over a street counts as canopy; against The Nature Conservancy's 2021 six-inch map of the city, on squares it never trained on, it read a typical district's paved share 1.7 points above the map's (at most 7.8 points off in the 46 districts with enough test ground) and its mean error per land-cover group was 4.8 points at best, more than the 3.0 points of the city's 2017 map read as if it were 2021, so the 2017 map is the more accurate source for its year; citywide its maps show 4.2 to 5.0 points less tree canopy than the city's 2017 map in 3 of its 4 yearly maps (2018, 2021, 2026) and 3.2 points more in 1 of its 4 yearly maps (2024), which is the model and its images and not the trees, so its canopy share can be several points off; two images of one summer differ by under 2.0 points in a district's paved share 19 times in 20, but between 2018 and 2024 the shares of 49 of 59 districts differ by more, so its maps of different years are not compared. Rely on the city's 2017 land cover map and The Nature Conservancy's 2021 map (both 6 inch) and the city's building footprints for a survey. Land cover from satellite, NYC land-cover model (experimental) Figure: 53.9% paved or built, 43.6% green, 17.4% tree canopy (2026) | 53.9% paved or built | Modeled | 2026 | 12 |
The written briefing, section by section
Mapped hazards
The outline on the map is this area's boundary from the NYC Department of City Planning's 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas; a community district is drawn as the union of its tabulation areas, which approximates the district.4 Landsat measured the surface of this area (its parks and open land included) at 1.1°F warmer than the city's land average, over 18 clear summer images from 2023-07-23 to 2026-08-08, each taken at about 11:35 am Eastern Daylight Time; image by image it ran from 0.5°F cooler to 2.6°F warmer.1 In the latest image, on 2026-08-08, the surface here read 99.5°F against a city average of 97.9°F.1 This is the temperature of roofs, pavement and treetops seen from orbit on clear late mornings, not the air temperature a person feels. The NYC Health Department's Heat Vulnerability Index (2023, from 2016 to 2020 data) scores Staten Island community district 1 at 2 out of 5; its neighbourhoods score Port Richmond 4, Tompkinsville-Stapleton-Clifton-Fox Hills 4, Rosebank-Shore Acres-Park Hill 3, St. George-New Brighton 3, Mariner's Harbor-Arlington-Graniteville 2, Westerleigh-Castleton Corners 2, West New Brighton-Silver Lake-Grymes Hill 1.3 The index ranks neighbourhoods against each other: the department says it "uses a statistical model to summarize the most important factors of neighborhood heat risk: surface temperature, green space, home air conditioning, and income". It is not a measurement of heat at an address, and the department says "All neighborhoods have residents at risk for heat illness and death". Of who heat harms most, the department writes that Black New Yorkers suffer disproportionate health impacts from heat "due to social and economic disparities", and that "These disparities stem from structural racism, which includes neighborhood disinvestment, racist housing policies, fewer job opportunities and lower pay, and less access to high-quality education and health care" (NYC Health Department, Interactive Heat Vulnerability Index). Residents of Staten Island community district 1 made 114 emergency department visits for heat illness in May to September of 2018 to 2022 (the five-year total), and the NYC Health Department gives an average annual age-adjusted rate of 18.3 per 100,000 residents against 6.0 citywide (from state hospital records).5 The count and the rate are separate figures in the department's file: for most community districts the count divided by residents and years does not give the printed rate, the file does not say why, and both are printed here as published. Visits are counted by where the patient lives, and only when diagnosed as heat illness. New York City's 2017 land cover map (6 inch, from LiDAR and aerial imagery) shows that 51.4% of this area is paved or built over and 46.2% is green (27.8% tree canopy); the rest is 1.8% water.2
Live readings
At Central Park, the nearest long-record weather station (21.2 km away), the air temperature reached 90°F on 12 days in 2026 through 2026-10-04 and on 14 in 2025; a full year averaged 17 in 1991 to 2020.8 The highest reading of 2026 was 100°F on 2026-07-02, and the station's record is 106°F, set on 1936-07-09 (records from 1869).8 These are the station's readings, not this area's.
Places and facilities
NYC Parks lists spray showers at 18 parks or playgrounds, 4 outdoor pools and 1 wading pool in this area (lists updated 2026-10-03 and 2026-09-15, copied 2026-10-05); the pools are Faber Pool, Lyons Pool, Maggie Howard Mini Pool, West Brighton Pool, West Brighton Wading Pool.6 Spray showers and outdoor pools run in summer only, and the list does not say whether one is working today. Cooling centers are separate: the city opens them only during a heat emergency and lists them then at finder.nyc.gov/coolingcenters (or call 311).6
Projections
No active NWS heat advisory, watch or warning for this area, checked 2026-10-05 17:34 UTC.9 NPCC4 (2024) projects 38 to 62 days a year at or above 90°F in New York City by the 2050s and 46 to 85 by the 2080s, as its middle range (25th to 75th percentile), against 17 a year in 1981-2010 (a baseline that matches Central Park's record, not an airport's); the 90th percentile is 69 days by the 2050s and 108 by the 2080s.11 Days at or above 95°F go from 4 a year to 14 to 32 by the 2050s and 17 to 54 by the 2080s, and heat waves from 2 a year to 5 to 8 and then 6 to 9.11 The ranges pool 16 climate models and two emissions scenarios (SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5), and are for the city as a whole, not for a neighbourhood.11
This is an automated hazard-exposure briefing produced by Riprap from live and precomputed data sources. It is informational only and not a substitute for a professional risk assessment. These are public records about a place, not an assessment of any property or of the people who live there. Riprap computes no score or rating, and records can be missing where people report less.
During a heat emergency the city lists its cooling centers at finder.nyc.gov/coolingcenters; heat safety guidance is at nyc.gov/health.
Figure 1, map
Loading map…
Sources and method
Sources cited
All 12 sources, with titles and document ids
- 1 Landsat 8 and 9 Collection 2 Level 2 surface temperature (USGS), via Microsoft Planetary Computer Landsat Collection 2 Level 2 Science Products, surface temperature band (USGS EROS), Landsat 8 and 9, WRS row 032, Tier 1 scenes of 1 June to 10 September with at least 95% of the city's land clear. Riprap averages 30 m pixels into 90 m cells and reports each cell against the city's land mean in the same image (scripts/bake_surface_temperature.py; the images are listed in data/heat/surface_temp.json). Measured, data as of 2026-08-08, heat_surface_nta
- 2 NYC Land Cover 2017, 6 inch (NYC Office of Technology and Innovation; University of Vermont Spatial Analysis Lab) Land Cover Raster Data (2017), 6 inch resolution, NYC Open Data he6d-2qns: eight classes mapped from 2017 LiDAR and aerial imagery. Riprap counts the 6 inch pixels of each class into 30 m cells and reports the shares inside the neighbourhood or district; a tree over a street counts as canopy. Measured, data as of 2017, city_landcover_nta
- 3 NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Environment and Health Data Portal, Heat Vulnerability Index NYC DOHMH Environment and Health Data Portal, Heat Vulnerability Index 2023 by 2020 neighborhood tabulation area and community district (github.com/nychealth/EHDP-data, key-topics/heat-vulnerability-index/hvi- nta-2020.csv and indicators/data/2191.json). The department builds it from American Community Survey 2016-2020, 2017 LiDAR, the 2020 Census, ECOSTRESS thermal imaging of 27 August 2020 and the 2017 Housing and Vacancy Survey. Modeled, data as of 2023-10-21, hvi_nta
- 4 NYC Department of City Planning, 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas NYC DCP 2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas (9nt8-h7nd); a community district is the union of its NTAs Measured, retrieved 2026-07-11, area_boundary
- 5 NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, Environment and Health Data Portal, heat stress emergency department visits NYC DOHMH Environment and Health Data Portal, indicator 2443, Heat stress: 5-year emergency department visits, 2018-22, by community district (github.com/nychealth/EHDP-data, indicators/data/2443.json). NYC residents treated in a NYC emergency department in May to September for the effects of heat; from New York State SPARCS hospital discharge data. Counts under 11 are suppressed. Measured, data as of 2024-08-24, heat_visits_nta
- 6 NYC Parks, Spray Showers and Pools (NYC Open Data) NYC Parks Spray Showers (NYC Open Data ckaz-6gaa, rows updated 2026-09-03) and NYC Parks Pools (y5rm-wagw, rows updated 2026-09-15). Spray showers are counted by park or playground. Measured, data as of 2026-09-15, cool_features_nta
- 7 National Weather Service (NOAA), latest observation at the nearest station NWS station observations (api.weather.gov/stations/{id}/observations/latest): air temperature, relative humidity and heat index at the nearest of the region's airport and Central Park stations. Measured, fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC, heat_obs_nta
- 8 NOAA Regional Climate Centers, Applied Climate Information System (ACIS), daily station records NOAA Regional Climate Centers, ACIS web services (data.rcc- acis.org/StnData): daily maximum temperature at the threaded station records for Central Park, LaGuardia Airport and JFK Airport; yearly counts of days at or above 90°F and yearly maxima. Measured, fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC, heat_station_nta
- 9 National Weather Service (NOAA), active alerts at point NWS active alerts at the place (api.weather.gov/alerts/active), heat events only: Heat Advisory, Extreme Heat Watch, Extreme Heat Warning. Modeled, fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC, nws_heat_alerts_nta
- 10 National Weather Service (NOAA), gridpoint forecast, New York office (OKX) NWS gridpoint forecast for the 2.5 km cell containing the place (api.weather.gov/gridpoints): daytime high temperatures and hourly apparent temperature. Advisory criteria from the New York office's definitions page (weather.gov/okx/wwa_definitions, read 2026-10-02). Modeled, fetched 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC, nws_heat_forecast_nta
- 11 NPCC4, New York City Panel on Climate Change (2024) Braneon, C. et al. (2024). NPCC4: New York City climate risk information 2022, observations and projections. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Vol. 1539 (doi:10.1111/nyas.15116), Table 4: projections for extreme heat and extreme precipitation events in NYC, baseline 1981-2010. Modeled, data as of 2024, npcc4_heat_nta
- 12 NYC land-cover model (Riprap, experimental) on Copernicus Sentinel-2, trained on NYC Land Cover 2017 Riprap's NYC land-cover model, trained by scripts/train_cover.py on NYC Land Cover 2017 (6 inch, NYC Open Data) aggregated to 10 m and run by scripts/run_landcover_batch.py on Sentinel-2 L2A scenes; scored against NYC Land Cover 2021 (The Nature Conservancy and UVM) on squares it never trained on. Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data, via Microsoft Planetary Computer. Experimental: an estimate from 10 m pixels, not a survey. Modeled Experimental, data as of 2026, landcover_nta
What was checked
Sources consulted (12)
- Area boundary (2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas)
- Summer surface temperature from Landsat, against the city's average
- NYC Heat Vulnerability Index (Health Department)
- Heat illness emergency department visits by community district (Health Department)
- NYC Land Cover 2017 (6 inch), tree canopy and paved share
- Land cover from satellite, NYC land-cover model (experimental)
- Latest air temperature at the nearest weather station
- Days at 90°F or above at the nearest long-record weather station
- NYC Parks spray showers and pools
- NWS active heat advisories, watches and warnings
- NWS seven-day forecast highs and apparent temperature
- NPCC4 (2024) extreme heat projections
Not checked for this question: none of the sources for this kind of place were skipped.
Out of scope
This briefing does not measure the temperature inside a building, give health advice, or predict the heat on a given day at a given address. Air temperature and an outdoor heat exposure index are mapped on the NYC Urban Heat Portal (https://urbanheat.nyc), by BetaNYC. Where a source was offline at run time, the relevant section omits that signal.
How this briefing was made
Evidence briefing (no LLM).
Precomputed snapshot, generated 2026-10-05 17:35 UTC from Riprap commit b0398f64. Live readings (tides, alerts, sensors) are as of that time.
5 Stones, 13 registered source functions: 13 ran.
What each source returned
Mapped hazards (Cornerstone, 6 source functions)
- area_boundary Area boundary (2020 Neighborhood Tabulation Areas) 30ms
- heat_surface_nta Summer surface temperature from Landsat, against the city's average 120ms
- hvi_nta NYC Heat Vulnerability Index (Health Department) 0ms
- heat_visits_nta Heat illness emergency department visits by community district (Health Department) 0ms
- city_landcover_nta NYC Land Cover 2017 (6 inch), tree canopy and paved share 110ms
- landcover_nta Land cover from satellite, NYC land-cover model (experimental) 170ms
Places and facilities (Keystone, 1 source function)
- cool_features_nta NYC Parks spray showers and pools 10ms
Live readings (Touchstone, 2 source functions)
- heat_obs_nta Latest air temperature at the nearest weather station 190ms
- heat_station_nta Days at 90°F or above at the nearest long-record weather station 220ms
Projections (Lodestone, 3 source functions)
- nws_heat_alerts_nta NWS active heat advisories, watches and warnings 390ms
- nws_heat_forecast_nta NWS seven-day forecast highs and apparent temperature 360ms
- npcc4_heat_nta NPCC4 (2024) extreme heat projections 10ms
The briefing (Capstone, 1 source function)
- step-16 reconcile_templated n_chars=6286, n_citations=12 83ms