Planning for Extreme Heat in Hennepin County

Hennepin County is partnering with three community-based organizations to lead engagement with, low-income, heat vulnerable, and diverse communities in a project called, “Heat Resiliency.”

The purpose of this four-month engagement, launched in July 2025, is to learn from resident’s lived experience with extreme heat and barriers they encounter when attempting to keep themselves safe and health.

The three community-based organizations, Asian Media Access , Islamic Civic Society of America, and Oromo Diaspora Media , represent diverse unique cultural groups. These organizations have special connection with Pan Asian, East African, African American, and senior citizen communities and more.

Ange Hwang at Asian Media Access said working with these vulnerable communities is essential.

“Extreme heat preparedness is critical for our Asian American seniors who face unique vulnerabilities - from language barriers that prevent them from receiving English-only emergency alerts to cultural hesitancy in seeking help during heat emergencies,” said Hwang. “Such collaborative approach helps protect our most vulnerable community members while building trust between immigrant communities and local government - work that becomes more essential as climate change brings increasingly dangerous heat waves worldwide.”

Ensuring these vulnerable voices are included within the Hennepin County planning process is critical as solutions are developed for implementing equitable solutions for the greater community. Each community group engages residents by collecting feedback through various means. This includes surveys at community events, focus groups, and informational presentations to raise awareness about the environmental, physical, and health implications of extreme heat.

Participants are encouraged to share their concerns about Minnesota’s heat conditions and ideas on what local government can do to take action and support the community. Feedback gathered in these events from will inform the development of the Hennepin Heat Resiliency Plan with the goal of increasing resiliency of vulnerable populations during extreme heat events.

You can share your own ideas too. Have your say via our ideas tab and share your thoughts on the Hennepin Heat Resiliency Plan.

The impacts of extreme heat are not experienced equally. Individuals who live in historically disinvested neighborhoods and those with additional health concerns are at greater risk during periods of extreme heat.

To better understand the uneven distribution of heat and related impacts, more than 200 volunteer community scientists collected data in Hennepin and Ramsey counties in July 2024 as part of NOAA’s 2024 Urban Heat Island Mapping Campaign.

Using heat sensors mounted on their cars, volunteers traversed designated routes in the morning, afternoon, and evening on one of the hottest days of the year. The sensors recorded data every second measuring temperature, humidity, time, and location.

The data collected by volunteers was analyzed by a team at CAPA to create detailed maps of the distribution of air temperature and humidity across much of Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

Learn more about the results of the mapping campaign.