Around the world, cities are significantly warmer than neighboring rural and suburban areas. The main driver for these higher temperatures is the built environment. Learn more about how our building and developmental choices impact our city temperatures and contribute to the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect.

Hot temperatures tend to make people cranky, but heat’s impact on our mental health goes much deeper than that. In this, the 3rd article from our Extreme Heat series, we delve into the impact of extreme heat on our mental health, including how preexisting mental illness, substance use disorder, and certain medications contribute to risk, and compound the impacts. Image credit: NOAA