In 2024, Rochester set a record for its warmest year ever, as did the rest of the planet.
The average temperature last year in the region was 52.6 degrees, beating out the previous record of 51.8 degrees set in 2012. Likewise, the city set 12 daily high temperature records in 2024, according to the National Weather Service.
Put simply, the region appears to be getting warmer. That reality has spurred the City of Rochester to develop an extreme heat plan, meant to guide city resources in dealing with incidents where the heat index remains above 90 for more than two days. Heat index is calculated based on Fahrenheit temperature and humidity. For example, an 82-degree day with a humidity of 100% would have a heat index of 95.
At that temperature, heat stroke and exhaustion are possible, especially for populations like the homeless, children and elderly.
“When we did this plan, we of course wanted to look at the whole city, but we especially wanted to look at how does this effect vulnerable populations,” said Shalini Beath, manager of the city’s office of energy and sustainability.
The plan, funded by a grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, is meant to build a collaborative disaster response with other key emergency organizations like the American Red Cross and the Monroe County Public Health Department. Included in the work sessions were representatives from a slew of other organizations — Rochester Institute of Technology, RG&E and the University of Rochester Medical Center.
The plan was approved by unanimous vote of the Rochester City Council in February 2025. In many ways, it mirrors something the city has already been doing for the opposite end of the weather spectrum. The Code Blue protocol is meant for extreme cold conditions and focuses on activating resources including the shelter system to get people off of the streets.
Likewise, the extreme heat plan is meant to implement things ranging from pools to local hospitals to address extreme heat patterns. The top priority, for the city, is also similar to Code Blue: a good communications strategy.
“We will probably have a nice campaign around it to make sure everybody is aware of it,” said Carlet Cleare, press officer for the city. “Moving forward, we’ll beef it up, trying to target different people and demographics is really a touch point of it all.”
The plan comes as the city projects severe changes to heat patterns in coming decades, based on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It predicts that, at current trends, average temperatures could rise by about 7.5 degrees by 2050. If emission trends increase, average temperatures could increase by upwards of 15 degrees by 2100.
Beath emphasized that the city will keep making amends to the plan according to future weather events.
“The plan is a living document,” she said, “just our first step gathering the groups so we can have a combined force when we have to address these issues.”
Gino Fanelli is a reporter for WXXI/CITY. He can be reached at gfanelli@wxxi.org.
This article appears in Dec 1-31, 2024.
