Miami-Dade Mayor announces establishment of official "Heat Season" to start in 2022

Today, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced that, starting in 2022, Miami-Dade will officially establish an annual “Heat Season” that will start on May 1 and run through October 31, coinciding with the annual hurricane season.  

The new County policy was announced during the “Mayors for Heat Action” panel hosted by the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center (Arsht-Rock) at the UN Climate Change Conference COP26 in Glasgow. Mayor Levine Cava was joined on stage by the Mayors of Freetown (Sierra Leone) and Athens (Greece). Video of the full panel can be watched online here. 

“This will be the first-of-its-kind Heat Season in the world, and it will help Miami-Dade County prepare and protect people, particularly the most vulnerable, from the threat of this ‘silent killer.’ If we combine all climate-related deaths, heat takes the largest toll, and the vast majority of those dying are from our most vulnerable and low-income communities,” said Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava. “I encourage other Mayors in the United States and around the world to undertake bold, integrated initiatives like this one to help us meet the challenge of urban extreme heat, as we work to share solutions and save lives around the world.”  
 
As part of the Arsht-Rock’s Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance, and as a City Champion for Heat Action, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava appointed the world’s first Chief Heat Officer earlier this year. The Chief Heat Officer and Miami-Dade County’s Office of Resilience recently released the Extreme Heat Toolkit, identifying current and potential actions to mitigate urban heat islands and manage the impacts of increasing extreme heat. This toolkit was developed through conversations with stakeholders and partners from community-based organizations, county and municipal staff, university partners, healthcare professionals and the National Weather Service.  

This and several other strategies are included in the Mayor’s recently updated Climate Action Strategy, a holistic plan to mitigate the impacts of climate change and build a more resilient County and community.