Feature-Faculty

Jessica Finlay Quoted in USA Today: The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:55:01 +0000

Jessica Finlay Quoted in USA Today: The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 09/21/2026 - 08:55

Article text copied for archival purposes.

The surprising new way to find friends and true love? Your Costco card

by Jessica Guynn

Updated September 16th, 2026

With their busy schedules, Los Angeles besties and social media influencers Analyse Talavera and Carmen Rene Smith don’t always spend as much time together as they’d like. Their solution? Tag-teaming their Costco errands.

The outings double as catch-up sessions while they load their carts with everything from tins of spicy albacore and protein bowls to Neutrogena makeup wipes and paper towels.

"Especially in this economy, instead of going out and dropping $200 on dinner – which Analyse and I are good for – we go to Costco and stock up on meal prep for the week and then top it off with a $3 fro yo," Smith said. "You really can't beat that."

Arizona couple Lisa Bayless and Jeff Stitt share the aisles of Costco, too. For their 18 years of marriage, they rarely shop alone.

Stitt pushes and unloads the heavy cart while Bayless guides the way with their list, checking off household staples like bottled water, sugar and toilet paper.

"It's sort of like date night, but it’s an afternoon date with a purpose," Bayless said.

On the surface, Costco is a popular spot for Americans to stretch their grocery dollar, but it also feeds a deeply human need. As physical community spaces disappear and social bonds fray, the warehouse giant has emerged as an unexpected anchor for connection.

Take San Jose, California, mother of four Alyssa Munoz swaps the local park for a different kind of playground on Sunday mornings. She meets up with other parents at Costco to push side-by-side carts − one for the kids, one for the groceries − before wrapping up the playdate at the food court.

"They get samples, lunch and ice cream and we get our groceries done," Munoz said.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, says socializing is a "very overlooked, but also very important" reason why people shop at Costco.

"While Costco’s primary purpose is as a place to stock up on products, it has also become something of a social destination," Saunders said.

Searching for connection at Costco

Sociologists call it a "third place" – Ray Oldenburg's term for the parks, barbershops and libraries where people build community outside home and work. Increasingly, that gathering spot is Costco.

But these communal destinations are slowly vanishing from American life. Sprawling suburbs leave little room for walkable hubs while endless screen time – from TikTok scrolling to Netflix binges – has replaced real-world connection. As attendance at churches and civic clubs declines, Americans are left feeling isolated.

The fallout is a national loneliness crisis. Federal data shows face-to-face socializing has plummeted since tracking began in 2003, with Americans spending just 35 minutes a day connecting in person, down 15% from a decade ago.

So Americans are searching for new places to reclaim that sense of belonging.

For decades, the cultural ideal was "Cheers" – the neighborhood bar where "everybody knows your name." Today, that coveted "third place" is just as likely to be a climbing gym or yoga studio, an independent bookstore, a pickleball court, or, yes, Costco warehouses.

"They're typically physically accessible, relatively low-cost, low-pressure hub/hangouts, socially welcoming to a diversity of folks, and multigenerational – all key 'third place' attributes,' said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��.

Take Wil Cid, a card-carrying member since 1988 – back when Costco was Price Club. For Cid, Costco isn't just a wholesale warehouse; it's his happy place.

Visiting three to four times a week, he is such a fixture at local stores that Costco employees know him by name. Once, upon returning from a vacation, staffers stopped him every few feet, asking where he had been. Friends routinely text his wife, Vivian, to report sightings.

"I tell them I’m not surprised," Vivian said. "He’s there all the time."

That devotion led Vivian to organize a surprise party at the food court for Wil’s 68th birthday, leaning into an obsession that she doesn’t really share or entirely understand.

"I like Costco in an average, normal, healthy way," she said.

From malls to McDonald's, America's meetups

Of course, Costco is not the first commercial space to function as a town square. According to Richard Kyte, a professor of ethics at Viterbo University and author of "Finding Your Third Place," corporate America has a long history of engineering social hubs.

In the 1950s and 1960s, suburban malls were explicitly designed as community cornerstones, complete with bustling food courts, movie theaters, arcades, and a smorgasbord of shops.

Fast-food staples like McDonald’s became a low-cost refuge where seniors lingered over morning coffee, students gathered after school and young kids frolicked in play areas.

Eventually, Starbucks revolutionized the concept, pairing comfy seating with free Wi-Fi to market itself as the definitive destination between home and work.

After an aggressive, pandemic-era pivot to drive-thrus, mobile pickups, and delivery app orders, the coffee giant is trying to recapture its roots under its "Back to Starbucks" strategy, actively renovating cafes with inviting couches and extra power outlets and even returning to ceramic mugs, softer lighting, and wood paneling to convince Americans to sit down and stay a while.

How Costco became a 'third place'

With its fluorescent lighting, concrete floors, and industrial shelving, Costco might seem like an unlikely setting for leisurely socializing. But the retail powerhouse is uniquely positioned to serve as a third place, according to Kyte.

For one thing, it is woven into the very fabric of American life. As a ubiquitous fixture across the country, the chain provides a familiar, predictable environment that makes millions of members feel instantly at home.

According to consumer analytics firm Numerator, roughly 72.3 million households shopped at Costco over the past year. Even more striking, over a quarter of all U.S. households are dedicated regulars, visiting at least 12 times a year.

On average, a Costco shopper makes 31 trips annually, spending $99 per visit for a total annual outlay of $3,043 – figures that comfortably eclipse competitors like Sam’s Club and BJ’s, Numerator said.

Once inside the warehouse, shoppers tend to linger, enticed by a potent cocktail of comforting routine, retail adrenaline and cheap eats.

Numerator estimates that members made 144 million trips for food-court fare last year, effectively putting Costco on the same scale as major regional fast-food chains like In-N-Out and Zaxbys.

And, according to foot traffic analytics firm Placer.ai, the average Costco visit lasts 15 minutes longer than a trip to a traditional grocery store and outpaces other big-box superstores by roughly seven minutes.

"For many shoppers, a trip to Costco is an experience to savor and enjoy," Elizabeth Lafontaine, director of research at Placer.ai, said.

Building community one hot dog at a time

Once or twice a quarter, University of California, Davis students Sharon Hwang, Katrina Le and Steven Zhang pile dozens of classmates into a caravan of cars and head to the nearest Costco about 15 minutes away.

Their college club, which unites students over a shared childhood love for all things Costco, has become an unexpected antidote to campus isolation. By organizing these massive shopping adventures and food court lunches, the group has fostered tight-knit friendships on a campus of tens of thousands.

"If something small like a Costco trip can help someone meet new friends or feel a little bit connected, then I feel like we accomplished something," Hwang said.

What began as a casual weekly lunch for Jaxon Smith and his friends quickly evolved into a lifeline for local men.

Gathering at the food court once or twice a week, Smith’s group frequently crossed paths with other acquaintances. But it was the sight of so many men eating alone that sparked an idea: What if a trip to Costco could be an intentional way to combat male isolation?

Last November, Smith posted a video on Instagram, officially launching the Men’s Mental Health Costco Club. The weekly meetup became an instant success, drawing crowds so large it has since expanded well beyond the warehouse walls.

"Mental health is often portrayed in a negative light,” said Smith, who grew up going to Costco with his father and siblings. Through the club, he aims to flip that script and "just help men feel less lonely."

How 'Camp Costco' brings people together

The ultimate testament to Costco's power to bring people together began more than a quarter-century ago in Brentwood, Tennessee. Two friends – a World War II B-24 pilot and an Army veteran from the Cold War era – started meeting every Friday in the food court over hot dogs. Before long, veterans from the Korean, Vietnam and Gulf Wars joined their ranks at "Camp Costco."

Officially known as the Middle Tennessee Veterans Support Group, the weekly assembly provides local service members with the vital camaraderie they first forged in uniform.

Paul Napoli, who served in the Marines before the Vietnam War, says he started going in 2010 when the group had just 10 regulars. Today, the roster has expanded to a couple hundred members, with 40 to 60 veterans gathering each week.

"Nobody cares what rank you were or what service you were in. Everybody mixes together," he said. "It’s just a wonderful group of people."

That makes Costco something exceedingly unusual: a gathering place where Americans of all backgrounds feel at home in a deeply polarized country.

Costco has a vested interest in preserving that sense of belonging. With membership fees driving nearly two-thirds of Costco’s profits in 2025, belonging fuels its business model. Tellingly, its in-house magazine is called "Costco Connection."

'Clubbing for married folks'

Going to Costco has become one of America's collective rituals, according to sociologist Randall Collins. For many, this shared time roaming the aisles is deeply personal. Collins’s wife regularly catches up with friends over food-court hot dogs, and he knows couples who first met in the wine aisle.

In fact, Costco has emerged as an unlikely romantic spot. Couples call it "clubbing for married folks." They graze on free samples, browse jewelry or big-screen TVs and top it off with chicken bakes or pizza slices. The "Kirkland Signature date night" is so popular that some couples now spend engagements, anniversaries, and Valentine's Day at the warehouse.

The allure crosses over to celebrities, too. Meta cofounder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, have been spotted browsing electronics in Mountain View, California, while Michelin-starred chef José Andrés routinely tags along on his wife’s Costco trips to scout their impressive French Bordeaux selection. Country star Russell Dickerson and his wife, Kailey, even leave their boys with grandma for warehouse dates, with Kailey joking that any kid-free excursion – especially a Costco run – feels romantic.

Perhaps no couple can claim more miles logged in the name of warehouse devotion than New York residents David and Susan Schwartz.

Bonded by a mutual obsession with the brand, the pair traveled over 300,000 miles to visit more than 350 warehouses in 14 countries to write their book, “The Joy of Costco: A Treasure Hunt from A to Z.” Today, they still relish dates at their local store. Today, they still relish dates at their local store.

Pick up in the frozen food aisle

When it comes to romance, "Love Island" has nothing on Costco.

Margot Schein, a self-described "Costco nerd," was browsing a dating app when she spotted the profile of Jules Parris, who listed Costco as a favorite.

Intrigued, Schein reached out, and the two met at a San Diego warehouse. They spent hours strolling the aisles, grazing on free samples and dining in the food court. Parris admits she forgot almost everything on her grocery list that day because she couldn’t take her eyes off Schein.

After a cross-country move for graduate school, the couple returned to that exact San Diego store on the third anniversary of their meet-cute to get hitched. With the warehouse manager's blessing, they exchanged vows under an archway by the checkout stands.

Today, they still preserve their Sunday morning shopping ritual. "Costco literally brought us together," Schein said. "People are like, 'You must really love capitalism,' and I’m like, 'That’s not it. I love this one store.'"

Robert Bonilla’s Costco love story began with a similar twist of fate.

Days before Christmas in 2013, Bonilla was navigating a crowded frozen food aisle when he locked eyes with a woman wearing cowboy boots.

Years later, he proposed in that very same aisle, attaching a marriage proposal note to a package of frozen shrimp. The couple eventually wed after-hours inside the store, saying "I do" as employees drove forklifts and restocked shelves in the background.

Though the marriage didn’t last, Bonilla’s relationship with Costco did.

Now single and a still familiar regular at his local Santa Maria, California, warehouse, he hasn't ruled out a sequel.

"You never know," Bonilla laughed. "I shop there all the time. In fact, I’m going there today."

Off

Traditional

White

Jessica Finlay received $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA)

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 14:31:20 +0000

Jessica Finlay received $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 09/21/2026 - 08:31

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Geography and Institute of Behavioral Science Faculty Fellow, Dr. Jessica Finlay for receiving $3.7 million grant from the National Institute of Health (NIH) National Institute on Aging (NIA) for her project!

The project is titled “Life Course Cognability: A Mixed Methods Study of Neighborhoods and Cognitive Health.” The five-year project will examine how neighborhood services, amenities and hazards influence cognitive health and dementia risk across adulthood.

In addition to this grant, Jessica Finlay has also received the Gateway Exposome Coordinating Center pilot grant and the Center to Accelerate Population Research in Aging pilot grant.

Off

Traditional

White

Jennifer Balch in Boise State Public Radio - NPR: Researchers, other experts join forces to tackle the problem of fast, destructive blazes

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 16:24:29 +0000

Jennifer Balch in Boise State Public Radio - NPR: Researchers, other experts join forces to tackle the problem of fast, destructive blazes Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 09/08/2026 - 10:24

Article text copied for archival purposes.

Researchers, other experts join forces to tackle the problem of fast, destructive blazes

Boise State Public Radio News

by Murphy Woodhouse

Published September 3, 2026 at 5:07 PM MDT

From Spokane, Wash. to Pueblo County, Colo., fast-moving fires have again wreaked havoc in neighborhoods this summer. Now, a network of scientists, fire professionals and other experts have joined forces to seek research-based solutions to the problem.

�鶹��Ѱ�� fire scientist Jennifer Balch argues that widespread thinking about the wildfire crisis is wrong in some basic ways. In a 2024 paper, she and co-authors argued that it isn’t the increasing size of fires that’s threatening homes and lives: it’s their speed.

In a recent two-decade period, wildfires that grew more than 4,000 acres in a day were less than 3% of the roughly 60,000 fires they analyzed. But that small portion accounted for nearly 90% of structures damaged or destroyed.

“We need to shift away from thinking that ‘big’ is the problem because it's not. It's actually the small, fast-moving fires that are the ones that are destroying most of our homes,” she told the Mountain West News Bureau this week. “They're also mostly in grassland systems, they're not in the middle of the woods.”

A paradigmatic example is Colorado’s 2021 Marshall Fire, a wind-driven but relatively small blaze that destroyed more than 1,000 suburban homes in an afternoon just before New Year’s.

“Fires are also getting faster, which is really compromising firefighting abilities and suppression teams,” she added.

On average, the maximum fire growth rate jumped by just shy of 250% across the West, with even sharper accelerations seen in parts of California, Idaho, Washington and Oregon, according to the 2024 paper.

To help inform policy responses, Balch and her colleagues recently launched the National Science Foundation-funded Fast Fire Network. The inaugural meeting was held this week.

“We really want to build a larger collaborative community because this is an all-hands-on-deck moment when we need everybody across sectors to be thinking about how we solve the fast fire problem,” she said.

Some 175 people representing academia, industry, nonprofits and government joined the virtual event, a level of interest Balch called “exciting.”

Moving forward, participants will work in smaller teams to develop new tools and data-driven policy responses, Balch said. At the end of the five-year effort, they’ll present the solutions they develop.

Because fast-moving blazes so often overwhelm the ability of structure and wildland firefighters to respond, Balch said that many of the most impactful solutions will focus on resilience, not emergency response.

“We need to be thinking about building and hardening homes, making communities more fire resilient, coming up with evacuation plans well in advance of any fires starting,” she said. “And, we also need to use fire to fight fire.”

“We need to deal with it before a fire even starts,” she added. “Because once you have a fast-moving fire, it's too late.”

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Boise State Public Radio, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio and KJZZ in Arizona as well as NPR, with support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.

Off

Traditional

White

Sara Meerow in Forbes: How To Improve Heat Action Plans

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 15:08:50 +0000

Sara Meerow in Forbes: How To Improve Heat Action Plans Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 09/08/2026 - 09:08

Article text copied for archival purposes.

How To Improve Heat Action Plans

By Christine Ro, Contributor.

Published: Sep 05, 2026, 07:10am EDT

Even now, after the 11 hottest years on record due to climate change, most cities and regions don’t have formal plans for extreme heat. This may be due to a lack of resources or political will, or because extreme heat is bundled into other health planning (if it’s addressed at all).

“Heat action plans are still really geographically uneven,” notes Sara Meerow, a geographer at the �鶹��Ѱ��. “There are whole regions of the world that essentially don’t have any heat action plans that we’re aware of.”

That’s a major omission. Heat action plans are linked to fewer deaths during extreme heat in India and more changes in behavior in Nepal, for example.

But despite their power to save lives, these plans are far from perfect. Here are a few broad ways to strengthen them.

Figure Out Organization

Meerow coauthored a recent analysis of 34 heat action plans, published by the Red Cross Red Crescent Global Disaster Preparedness Center (GDPC). One key finding may seem dull, but it’s critical: all too often, weaknesses in heat response planning come down to bureaucratic divisions. For instance, an urban development department responsible for maintaining trees might not be talking to a public health department responsible for monitoring hospital admissions during heatwaves. They might not be considering (or even reading) each other’s heat-related plans.

“If you’re not referencing the goals or information in another plan, there’s a chance that the actions that you’re proposing may not be in line with them, or might even potentially conflict,” Meerow points out. “Better integration and connections between plans is something that we really emphasize.” It’s a finding that came up again and again in the research.

Some places have appointed chief heat officers. Others have formed committees with representatives of different government agencies that are all relevant to heat. There’s not yet enough research on what works best, Meerow says. But what is clear is that someone needs to be coordinating activity.

Plug The Gaps

There are some persistent holes in heat action plans. One is mental health. Like heat, mental health issues can be hard to visualize. The two can aggravate each other in ways that often go unacknowledged in policy. One study of 143 heat action plans found that while 57% mentioned mental health, this was mostly in a superficial way. Only 14% had specific activities related to the mental health effects of heat.

There’s another way. Community mental health programs in Pakistan have stepped up their monitoring and support during heatwaves, including helping with home ventilation and hydration. This has led, for instance, to early intervention to avoid hospitalization with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is associated with especially magnified risks of death during heatwaves. Scaling up this kind of community support into formal heat planning could help protect many more vulnerable people.

Connect Goals To Actions

Meerow stresses the importance of communities first deciding on their goals, then matching the information they collect and the strategies they plan to those goals. “That sounds really basic, but actually it’s not always how plans are developed.”

For instance, if a city’s goal is to reduce heat deaths, it would need to figure out who’s most at risk and why, and then how to most effectively cut mortality. If its goal is to improve liveability for everyone, the planning could look quite different.

This action planning is best informed by the experiences of the people the plans are seeking to support. In Delhi, according to an independent investigation of the 2026 heat action plan, “The State’s picture of what a worker needs was assembled without asking a worker.”

Actually Track Them

Remarkably, most places with heat action strategies aren’t actually evaluating whether they work. Essentially, they’re hoping for the best; relying on anecdotal reports; or simply counting up how many activities they run, not whether they’re actually making people safer.

“One of the key findings from this study is that it’s really challenging to actually measure effectiveness,” Meerow summarizes. “We do not have sufficient evidence of the comparative benefit of these different strategies.”

Richer governments may not be tracking heat-health deaths. Poorer governments may not be tracking all deaths, from any cause. In all cases, unmeasured results don’t make for the best use of scarce funds.

Vienna’s approach was one of the better ones she and her colleagues studied, Meerow says. The city evaluates which measures were implemented and how well they were perceived to work, using a simple traffic-light system. Then the city revises the plan annually based on the evaluation. It’s a time-consuming and imperfect process; perceptions of effectiveness are not the same as actual effectiveness. Still, this is an improvement on most heat action plans.

Plan For The Longer Term

The GDPC report found that most of the heat response plans focused on immediate response. This might take the form of relatively inexpensive measures like warnings or cooling centers, for instance. These measures have limitations, though. Heat warnings often go ignored, for instance by people who think others are vulnerable, but not them. Cooling centers can sit nearly empty when they’re poorly publicized, far from the people who most need them, or just, well, boring.

Meerow understands the impulse to reach for the simple tools first. “As a first step, I think this makes a lot of sense, but of course, as we look to a hotter future, it’s also important to think about long-term heat mitigation.”

One possibility is to turn an emergency measure into a continuous offering. Abu Md. Zubair, a project officer with the anticipatory action team of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS), reports that Khulna, Bangladesh is considering building some permanent cooling stations in heat hotspots, such as near bus stops. This comes in the wake of feedback from users who found temporary cooling centers useful, but wanted many more; and for these to be activated at 39°C, not just 41°C. BDRCS cooling stations are simple, but 2–4°C cooler than the outside exposed area, Zubair says. This can make a big difference.

Even more enduring changes would be to housing, public infrastructure, education and preparedness systems.

Consider Cash

Even the best infrastructure and health-system plans in the world can’t get around the fact that often, people on limited incomes can’t afford to stop working or seek out medical care, even in dangerous conditions. One solution could be simply to strengthen those incomes ahead of heatwaves. Small cash transfers could be especially helpful for instance to gig workers in Indian cities, who might otherwise need to endure punishing temperatures to meet their daily needs.

Zubair has a long history with the Red Cross/Red Crescent movement. He started volunteering as a teenager, after he saw some older students volunteering in flooded parts of north Bengal. It stoked his curiosity, seeing how competent they seemed. He realized that volunteering could be a win-win: “I can develop my organizational skills, and I can also help the people.”

Twenty years later and now working for BDRCS, floods aren’t the only disaster concerning Zubair. Heat is increasingly a concern in Bangladesh, which is facing an extra 37.5 days per year of heat stress due to climate change. Even in the last five years, Zubair has noticed the weather getting more extreme. From power outages to melting roads, the summer is getting harder to endure.

Starting in 2024, following heat-action planning that Zubair was involved in, BDRCS trialled cash distribution during extreme heat. In 2024 they made transfers to outdoor workers in Dhaka, and in 2025 in Rajshahi, they topped up the government’s usual small transfers to elderly people by 2,400 taka (approx. US$ 20). This work depended on volunteers fanning out to identify vulnerable people, inform them of the forthcoming payments, and address any issues like mobile payments.

After receiving the money, it was most common for the elderly recipients to spend it on medical needs, which can be intensified during extreme heat. Others used it to buy food or adjust homes, for instance to limit scorching sunlight.

“I believe that cash is the best action compared to any other type of support, because for heatwaves households are having different types of problems,” Zubair says. “If you can deliver cash to the people, they can decide their own problems and solve their own problems.”

It’s not a perfect solution, of course. It can be time-consuming to identify vulnerable people, and there’s a risk of creating resentment when some people receive extra help while their neighbors are left out.

But for BDRCS, “cash is always a priority,” Zubair says. “There are people who are very much suffering from the heatwaves, and they need assistance because they don’t have any other options. If they don’t earn today, they have to be starving today.”

Fund Them Properly

This is the hardest needle to thread. In Bangladesh, cash support during heatwaves has depended on international funding.

In the U.S., political shifts have meant a loss of momentum and money for heat response in the last couple of years. Scottsdale, Arizona has reported being unable to track the implementation of its heat actions because of limited federal funding.

Meerow has seen firsthand the impacts of cut-off funds. In 2024, she and colleagues established a center that planned to work with communities over a couple of years to develop strategies for heat resilience. The following year, the assigned federal funding for that was cancelled. The team was able to publish a toolkit, but not to work with the communities fully. Other cancellations of federal funding have meant an end to programs planting trees in cities, addressing heat-related illness in outdoor workers, and reducing the summer energy bills of low-income families.

But some strategies don’t require a lot of resources. The installation of water ATMs in Nepalgunj, Nepal has been a cheap and apparently successful action.

Meerow and her colleagues recognized that a universal list of heat-action indicators just wouldn’t work across diverse contexts. For instance, it might be important in a rural area to track deaths of livestock during extreme heat. In contrast, in Cape Town’s very unequal geography, ambulance teams don’t go into informal settlements with poor roads. So counting emergency calls would miss a huge proportion of city residents, who are already spatially and economically excluded.

“The data infrastructure, the resources, the capacity are just so different in these different communities,” Meerow comments. Instead, she and colleagues have created a spreadsheet with a variety of options, piloted with cities in Austria, Nepal, South Africa and the U.S. The tool will be communicated to Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, in the hope that cities will take up this general tool and develop and track their own indicators.

Meanwhile, governments continue to develop their heat action plans. For example, the national heat action plan for Bangladesh “is currently at a very early stage of development,” Zubair reports. Around the world, now is the time to be learning and planning for the next heat season.

Off

Traditional

White

Jessica Finlay in the Washington Post: What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today?

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 16:32:31 +0000

Jessica Finlay in the Washington Post: What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today? Gabriela Rocha Sales Fri, 09/04/2026 - 10:32

Text of article copied for archival purposes.

What’s fueling loneliness—and polarization—in America today?

The loss of third places is one reason.

September 2, 2026

By Juhie Bhatia, The Nation

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice.

In 2011, Richard Kyte, an ethics professor at Viterbo University, noticed that two of his colleagues were growing increasingly isolated. So he suggested they meet every Wednesday at 6:30 am for breakfast at a café five blocks from their university in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

Fifteen years later, the meetups have continued and expanded, now happening at a tavern after the café closed. Some of the most reluctant participants are now the most engaged. Even as the group has changed, the opportunity for connection has remained.

“A couple colleagues that started with me years ago, our friendship has really deepened,” said Kyte, noting that he’s also become good friends with those who joined later. “When you’re talking about adding a close friend, that’s a huge change in the quality of your life.”

Places like Kyte’s local tavern have long offered more than food and drink. Known as “third places,” these informal gathering spaces outside home and work—from cafés and barber shops to local parks and libraries—can serve as hubs for social interaction, community ties, and civic engagement. But across the United States, many of these places are disappearing, transforming, or giving way to large corporate chains, some of which may prioritize efficiency and turnover over giving people a space to linger. That shift comes as Americans are feeling increasingly lonely, divided, and distrustful.

Kyte, author of Finding Your Third Place, said third places are not only declining overall but also changing. “They’re changing their character. The old places that were common third places are dying pretty rapidly,” he said. “Where do I find a third place? That’s a question I get a lot.”

First coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg, third places are a crucial form of social infrastructure. Research shows that they can foster belonging and social cohesion, as they offer opportunities for casual, low-stakes interactions. Regular engagement in these spaces has also been linked to lower loneliness and stress and better physical, mental, social, and cognitive health.

“Covid brought a greater awareness to third places, to how vital they are for everyday health and well-being,” said Jessica Finlay, an assistant professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��. ”They can be a social glue that connects us, and it’s really important for not just individual health but collective health.”

Yet fewer people are visiting these spaces, particularly since the pandemic. A national survey found that 54 percent of Americans now regularly spend time in such places, down from 67 percent in 2019.

Rising costs, remote work, busy schedules, and growing e-commerce are some of the reasons these places have become harder to sustain and fit into daily life. People are also socializing and communicating less. In 2025, 30 percent of Americans did so on an average day, down from 38 percent a decade earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Part of that may be because there are more ways to connect and be entertained without leaving home. Social media, gaming communities, group chats, and other digital spaces have moved more social interaction online. Finlay said these digital third places can bring both promise and peril.

“Even though you might be able to find folks who share the same passions or interests, there historically is value in productively encountering difference. When we’re in third places in person, we might be right next to someone who doesn’t think like we do or navigate the world in the same way,” she said. “We can lose a lot of that online.”

As third places become scarcer, their loss isn’t felt equally. A 2025 study found that the overall decline in third place availability may disproportionately affect majority-Black, lower-educated, and rural communities. Some of these groups already report higher rates of loneliness or less social support.

“We wanted to dig a little bit deeper into where are these closures concentrated? And we did find that underserved communities typically saw a greater concentration of closures,” said Finlay, one of the study’s authors.

But the pattern isn’t uniform, Finlay added, as some kinds of third places are holding steady or increasing. For instance, the majority-Black communities in the study had more access to civic and social organizations, beauty and barber shops, and restaurants. Libraries, meanwhile, were more concentrated in less-educated and rural areas. Some of these communities may also be more adept at finding other places to gather. “The story is complicated.”

The Trust for Public Land has also found that neighborhoods where most residents are people of color have access to an average of 44 percent less park acreage than predominantly white neighborhoods. Similar park space inequities exist in low-income neighborhoods.

Without accessible third places, experts warn, people may become more isolated and social networks can shrink. Their loss may also deepen political division and mistrust. In a 2025 Pew survey, just 44 percent of Americans said they trusted all or most of the people in their neighborhood.

“When you have a decline in the amount of time that people are actually spending getting to know others in their community, you have a decline in trust, because…most trust is built through person-to-person relationships,” said Kyte. “And so we’re going to continue to see less trust, and that leads to more polarization.”

Still, creating more opportunities to gather starts with supporting places where it can happen. That means helping existing third places stay open while making it easier to create new ones, from investing more in public spaces and lowering barriers for small businesses to rethinking policies and regulations that make such spaces harder to build.

“The main thing that needs to be done is to revise zoning codes in towns and cities to allow for small business in residential areas, usually called mixed-use zoning,” Kyte said. “There is a growing movement among urban planners to do this, but it’s a long, slow process. My own city of La Crosse is in the middle of this process right now.” Other cities such as Dallas, Pittsburgh, and Seattle have also been rethinking such zoning rules.

Through its Local Conversations initiative, Strong Towns is supporting more than 290 locally led groups across the country to take small steps to build community and improve their neighborhoods. The changes can be simple, said John T. Reuter, the organization’s executive director, such as adding benches at bus stops and dog parks, making intersections and crosswalks safer, or turning front yards into gathering spaces.

“People were reaching out to their neighbors, finding ways to connect, and starting to figure out how to heal their places,” Reuter said. “The very core problem that we have is our built environment is what’s driven us to this space of disconnection. And the solution is to start with reconnecting public space.”

But creating more third places isn’t enough; they also need to encourage connection. Comfortable seating, for example, can give people a reason to linger, while programming can draw people into the space. Finlay said that can require getting meaningful input from the communities the spaces are meant to serve.

“It is both quantity and quality,” she said. “Folks have mentioned wanting to just feel welcome in places, so little things like having ‘all are welcome’ signs or doing programming like game nights and trivia.”

Ultimately though, people have to show up.

“Each of us individually can have third places reappear for us, whether that’s a church or a coffee shop or a bowling alley or a game store, right? Whatever it might be, I would just encourage people to go out into the world,” said Reuter. “All of these things are happening today, and you just have to go out and find them and join them. You might not be able to end the loneliness epidemic for everyone, but you can end it for yourself.”

Off

Traditional

White

Noah Molotch in Grist: Scientists define a new category of heat wave: ‘Snow eaters’

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 16:08:01 +0000

Noah Molotch in Grist: Scientists define a new category of heat wave: ‘Snow eaters’ Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 08/18/2026 - 10:08

Article copied for archival purposes.

Kate Yoder Senior Staff Writer

Published Aug 12, 2026

Scientists define a new category of heat wave: ‘Snow eaters’

Unseasonably warm weather that rapidly melts snowpack is becoming more widespread in the U.S. West and happening earlier in the year.

Matthew LaPlante doesn’t have to go to a lab to see his research in action. On some mornings, he can just look out his own window in the mountains high above Salt Lake City. After a warm night when the temperature stays above freezing, he’ll wake up and see that the snow level has dropped by inches, revealing more of the aspens he taps for syrup.

“It feels like a monster came and just in the middle of the night, took a bite out of a snowpack,” said LaPlante, a journalist and climate scientist at Utah State University.

So it’s fitting that scientists have started calling these kinds of heat waves, marked by unusually high temperatures in the spring and early summer, “snow eaters.”

LaPlante was part of a recent study, published in the journal Science Advances, that attempted, for the first time, to identify what conditions exactly make for a “snow eater.” Compared to normal warm spells or heat waves, the researchers determined that these events happen when temperatures stay above freezing through both day and night for multiple days, typically three to five. These events can roughly double the rate at which snow melts, causing flooding and making it challenging to manage water resources.

“Snow eaters” appear to be occurring earlier in the year and becoming more widespread in the Western United States as the climate warms. Since the 1850s, the study found, the area affected by snow eaters has increased by an average of about 40,000 square miles per century, and the first snow eater of the season has been arriving about one month earlier per century.

The term “snow eater” has a murky history. By at least the 1880s, people in the West were talking about “snow-eating” chinooks, warm mountain winds that make snow disappear quickly. More recently, the phrase “snow-eater heat wave” first made headlines in March, when an early heat wave enveloped much of the West, quickly wiping away snowpack in the Colorado Rockies and California’s Sierra Nevada. The scientists hope the catchy, evocative term can help draw more attention to this type of heat wave, since there’s still a lot to learn. The study only looked at the Western U.S., but snow eater heat waves almost assuredly occur elsewhere, LaPlante said.

Solar radiation is a major, but sometimes overlooked, driver of snowmelt, said Noah Molotch, a professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ�� who was not involved in the new study. When it interacts with heat waves, those impacts are amplified. As snow crystals warm up, they lose some of their structure and light-reflecting abilities, causing snowpacks to absorb more sunlight and melt faster. “It’s a little bit of a — no pun intended — a snowball effect,” he said.

Much of the Western U.S. saw record-low snowpack this spring. What was really unusual about it, Molotch said, was how widespread it was. Colorado received less precipitation than normal this winter, while California got lots of precipitation, but in the form of rain instead of snow. But across the region, “the one thing in common was above-average air temperatures,” Molotch said.

These conditions have likely helped fuel exceptionally severe wildfires in the West, from Utah to Spokane, Washington, where hundreds of homes burned earlier this month. “Drought stress for mountain forests around the Western U.S. is heavily dictated by the snow that accumulates each winter and then melts through the spring and summer,” Molotch said. “There is a direct connection there in terms of the water availability and drought stress that can provide one of the important ingredients for increases in wildfire intensity and frequency.”

If scientists are able to better predict what will happen to snowpack, it could help water managers plan for what’s coming. Early or rapid snowmelt poses problems for managing water resources in the West, where snowpack serves as a key source of fresh water in the drier summer months. “Water that would otherwise be stored as snow comes out early, and then we have to deal with it as a hazard instead of a resource at our reservoirs and along the rivers and streams,” said Ben Hatchett, a co-author on the study and a scientist at Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere.

Snow-eater heat waves also may pose risks to skiers, hikers, and anyone else on or near mountains. They could be linked to hazards such as avalanches, glacial collapses, and permafrost melt, Hatchett said, though scientists are still investigating those connections. He lives in the Sierra Nevada, and he’s noticed one tangible change over his lifetime: The soundscape has changed.

“At night, it used to be quiet,” he said. “And now it’s not quiet, because everything’s melting all the time.”

“Drought stress for mountain forests around the Western U.S. is heavily dictated by the snow that accumulates each winter and then melts through the spring and summer,” Molotch said. “There is a direct connection there in terms of the water availability and drought stress that can provide one of the important ingredients for increases in wildfire intensity and frequency.”

Off

Traditional

White

Sara Meerow in Colorado Newsline: Environment Heat-related illnesses spike in Colorado as climate change fuels record temperatures

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 17:32:12 +0000

Sara Meerow in Colorado Newsline: Environment Heat-related illnesses spike in Colorado as climate change fuels record temperatures Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 08/17/2026 - 11:32

Chase Woodruff

Article copied for archival purposes.

Heat-related illnesses spike in Colorado as climate change fuels record temperatures

Extreme heat can be ‘invisible’ compared to wildfires and drought — but it’s more dangerous by far

By Chase Woodruff - August 17, 2026 4:00 am

As temperatures reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit in Colorado Springs on Aug. 8, breaking a 57-year-old daily record, attendees at a music festival held at Blocktickets Park felt the heat.

More than 70 people in attendance at the Tacos and Tequila Festival were treated for heat-related illnesses, including at least seven who were hospitalized after “experiencing serious symptoms of dehydration and/or intoxication,” according to the Colorado Springs Fire Department, which declared the festival a “mass casualty” event.

The festival-goers were among a record number of Coloradans who sought medical treatment for heat-related illnesses this summer, amid unprecedented extreme heat fueled by climate change — a trend that’s projected to continue to intensify for years to come, as governments around the world struggle to curb the greenhouse gas emissions pushing global temperatures higher and higher.

Between May 3 and Aug. 8, a total of 1,124 patients in 18 of Colorado’s most populous counties were hospitalized or visited an emergency department or urgent care because of heat stroke, heat exhaustion or another heat-related illness, according to data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s Syndromic Surveillance Program. Data for the state’s other 46 counties is not collected as part of the program.

Those figures put Colorado on track for a heat-related illness rate of 13.6 per 10,000 medical visits in summer 2026 — surpassing the previous record of 8.9, set in 2024, and more than double the rate observed when CDPHE began tracking HRI data in 2019.

Last month was Colorado’s second-hottest July in 132 years of record-keeping, and a heat wave lasting from July 25 to 28 was the state’s hottest four-day period on record, according to a report from the Colorado Climate Center last week.

More frequent, more intense heat waves are the most direct and unambiguous result of human-caused climate change to be felt in Colorado, state climatologists found in a 2024 report. Rising levels of greenhouse gases in the Earth’s atmosphere, mostly the result of burning oil, gas and coal, caused average global temperatures to rise by more than 2.3 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-industrial levels as of 2024, according to federal data — and parts of Colorado, including much of the Western Slope, are among the areas in the U.S. where average temperature increases have been most severe.

What may sound like small upticks in monthly or yearly average temperatures can in fact mean big swings in the likelihood of extreme heat events. In the half-century before 1930, Denver recorded a high of 100 degrees or more less than once every seven years on average, according to the National Weather Service; since 2020, those days have occurred on average four times a year.

Globally, extreme heat kills more people each year than floods, hurricanes, wildfires and other weather-related disasters combined. But despite being one of the most straightforward impacts of a warming climate, this increasingly dangerous heat can be “invisible” to the public and to policymakers, said Sara Meerow, an associate professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ�� who studies planning and governance in an era of extreme heat.

“You don’t get the same dramatic photos that you do, say, from a wildfire or a hurricane, of devastation and destruction,” Meerow said in an interview. “People who are suffering from heat are often suffering alone. It doesn’t lend itself to the same sort of visible imagery, and also doesn’t always have really visible infrastructure damage.”

Communities that haven't historically thought a lot about about heat now really have to ... When it starts to become a chronic issue for a community, then you really have to figure out how to live with this.

– Sara Meerow, associate professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��

That may be especially true in Colorado, where the impacts of drought and wildfire often take center stage — and where residents are less accustomed to dealing with extreme heat, even as they quickly become more frequent. One 2017 city of Denver study estimated that if global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise, the average number of 100-degree days could reach 34 per year by 2080.

“Communities that haven’t historically thought a lot about about heat now really have to,” said Meerow. “If it’s just a couple of days, people can change their routines. They can maybe escape to the mountains, go to the pool — you can adapt quite easily to that. When it starts to become a chronic issue for a community, then you really have to figure out how to live with this.”

Worker safety

Colorado’s hazardously hot summer comes as state lawmakers have struggled to pass a law requiring employers to take concrete steps to mitigate risks from extreme temperatures in the workplace. A bill introduced in 2025 would have required employers to provide shade or shelter in extreme conditions, implement temperature-related safety plans for job sites and make water available for workers. Amid opposition from business groups, it failed to advance out of committee.

A scaled-back version of the bill, introduced earlier this year, aimed to provide employers more “flexibility” in developing their own plans to be submitted to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment for approval. But lawmakers eventually stripped out that provision, too, passing an even narrower version requiring CDLE to collect data on temperature-related injuries and publish a “model” injury prevention plan on its website.

Injury risks for workers begin to rise at a daily heat index of 85 degrees Fahrenheit, and increase sharply above 90 degrees, according to a 2025 study that analyzed Occupational Safety and Health Administration data.

At the federal level, OSHA under President Donald Trump is moving to rescind Biden-era rules requiring employers to take steps like mandatory breaks and providing access to water and shade, The New York Times reported earlier this month.

Milton Jones, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, last week accused the Trump administration of “bowing to special interests and leaving workers at risk.” The UFCW represents tens of thousands of Colorado workers employed at meatpacking plants and grocery stores.

“Whether a UFCW member works in harvesting at a meatpacking plant in the summertime or fulfilling grocery orders outside in the sun, heat poses a potentially fatal risk to every worker,” Jones said in a statement. “Despite the progress made to establish a federal standard, the Trump administration has made it clear that it intends to side with big businesses fighting these protections rather than workers in danger of heat-related illness and death.”

Older people and people experiencing homelessness are also among those at significantly higher risk of injury, illness or death from extreme heat. Denver joined a growing number of U.S. cities when it began operating free cooling centers in 2021; all city recreation centers now open their doors as daytime cooling centers when the NWS issues a heat advisory for the region, though some advocates say the hours are too limited.

Cities like Denver — through its Office of Climate Action, Sustainability and Resiliency — are taking more proactive approaches to mitigating and managing extreme heat in the future, including through the hiring of “chief heat officers” and the development of heat action plans.

“I think all communities are going to have to do that — not just the larger, better-resourced cities in the state,” Meerow said. “The climate and the heat that we have experienced in the past is just no longer a good precedent. It’s no longer what we can expect in the future.”

"Communities that haven't historically thought a lot about about heat now really have to ... When it starts to become a chronic issue for a community, then you really have to figure out how to live with this." – Sara Meerow, associate professor of geography at the �鶹��Ѱ��

Off

Traditional

White

Peter Blanken Elected 2027 American Meteorological Society Fellow

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 13:54:02 +0000

Peter Blanken Elected 2027 American Meteorological Society Fellow Gabriela Rocha Sales Mon, 08/10/2026 - 07:54

Congratulations to Geography Professor Peter Blanken for being elected as a 2027 American Meteorological Society (AMS) Fellow. AMS fellows are "elected by the AMS Council based on outstanding contributions to the atmospheric or related oceanic or hydrologic sciences or their applications during a substantial period of years." See full evaluation criteria here.

The American Meteorological Society advances the atmospheric and related sciences, technologies, applications, and services for the benefit of society. Founded in 1919, AMS has a membership of around 12,000 professionals, students, and weather enthusiasts. AMS publishes 12 atmospheric and related oceanic and hydrologic science journals—in print and online; sponsors more than 12 conferences annually; and offers numerous programs and services. See full press release of the 2027 AMS honorees here.

Off

Traditional

White

Sara Meerow: Heat is the world's deadliest climate hazard. Are cities ready?

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Thu, 06 Aug 2026 19:51:04 +0000

Sara Meerow: Heat is the world's deadliest climate hazard. Are cities ready? Gabriela Rocha Sales Thu, 08/06/2026 - 13:51

Yvaine Ye

Article copied from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today for archival purposes.

8/5/2026 - Yvaine Ye

Out of 31 days in July, Denver temperatures hit 90°F or higher during 28 of them. So far this summer, the city has seen six days with temperatures above 100°F and one of the hottest Julys in recorded history.

Extreme heat is no longer just a problem for places like Phoenix. As climate change drives up temperatures around the world, communities are experiencing more frequent and more intense heat waves.

In Europe, places that historically experience just a handful of hot days every year, a relentless heat wave has gripped the continent, fueling droughts and destructive wildfires. It is estimated that the extreme heat in Europe this summer has caused as many as 10,000 deaths.

“Heat is the deadliest climate-related hazard, causing more fatalities in the United States than hurricanes, floods and tornadoes combined,” said Sara Meerow, a new associate professor in the Department of Geography. “While we’ve only seen close to a 1.5°C (2.7°F) increase in global average temperatures, it translates to a very big shift in the number of extreme heat days that we’re seeing everywhere.”

According to the most recent United Nations climate science report, an extreme heat event that previously occurred once every 50 years is now happening once every decade.

A computer model has shown that the city of Boulder, Colorado, historically experienced about five days each year above 95°F, but the city could see nearly 30 such days by 2030.

“Now heat is really sort of a chronic threat, and so communities everywhere really do need to be planning for heat resilience,” said Meerow, who is also joining �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder as a fellow of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences and the Institute of Behavioral Science.

With more hot days on the horizon, �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder Today sat down with Meerow to discuss why heat remains an "invisible hazard," why many communities are still unprepared and what can be done to protect the people most at risk.

Are US cities prepared for the level of heat we're experiencing today?

It's really getting hotter everywhere due to a combination of global climate change and local development patterns, as well as weather patterns.

Our planning and proactive management of heat is still underdeveloped. Part of the reason is that heat is an invisible hazard. It doesn't have the dramatic images of flooding or wildfires that make front pages.

But I do think that's starting to change. We're in a ‘heatshed’ moment, a turning point where increasing heat waves are making people more aware of the risks and leading to calls for more action.

Who faces the greatest risks from extreme heat?

Heat risks are highly inequitable.

Some neighborhoods are simply hotter than others. Research has shown that areas that were historically redlined, or subject to discriminatory lending practices largely because residents were poor or people of color, often have less vegetation and are hotter today. At the same time, some populations are much more susceptible to heat-related illness and death, such as older adults, people with pre-existing medical conditions, children and unhoused people.

We also tend to think of heat as an urban problem, but rural communities face significant risks as well. Research has shown that rural residents often arrive at hospitals sicker from heat-related illnesses, in part because they have less access to healthcare. Rural areas also have many outdoor and agricultural workers who face prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures. That’s why some colleagues and I recently wrote a report for the American Planning Association providing specific guidance on how to plan for rural heat resilience.

How do we build a heat-resilient city?

We generally think about three categories of strategies: heat mitigation, heat management and heat governance.

Heat mitigation strategies are things that actually cool communities by reducing temperatures. That includes reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also reducing the excess heat produced by buildings, pavement and automobiles through measures like planting more trees and installing reflective roofs.

Heat management protects people from the heat we can't eliminate. These include public health campaigns, early warning systems and creating cooling centers to ensure people have access to indoor cooling.

Finally, heat governance is about building institutions that can better coordinate these efforts. Historically, heat has been a problem that no single agency was responsible for. Some cities are now appointing chief heat officers to help fill that gap.

It can be hard for cities to know where to start, so we’ve developed a Building Heat Resilient Communities Toolkit that offers step-by-step guidance for heat action.

What can individuals do to better protect themselves?

One of the most important things is simply being aware of heat risks and understanding your own health. Certain pre-existing conditions or medications, for example, can increase the risk of heat-related illness.

When excessive heat warnings are issued, consider changing your routine to avoid strenuous activities, like going for a run, during the hottest parts of the day.

People can also make their homes more heat-resilient by using energy-efficient appliances, adding vegetation or shade around the home and using blinds effectively.

Individuals can also advocate for more proactive heat planning in their communities.

There's no single silver bullet. We need to think about which combination of strategies will be most effective for each community based on the heat risks it faces.

Off

Traditional

White

Colleen Reid in The Conversation: Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself

Gabriela Rocha Sales — Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:17:27 +0000

Colleen Reid in The Conversation: Yes, breathing wildfire smoke can harm your health – here’s what you can do to protect yourself Gabriela Rocha Sales Tue, 07/28/2026 - 13:17

Colleen E. Reid

This article has been copied from The Conversation for archival purposes.

Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota has been pouring across the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. states, turning skies an eerie shade of orange. In the West, smoke has also been spreading into communities in Colorado and neighboring states as more wildfires burn in hot, dry conditions in July 2026.

University of Colorado environmental health researcher Colleen Reid explains what’s in that smoke and why breathing it is a health concern everyone should be aware of.

What is in wildfire smoke?

Wildfire smoke is a complex mixture that includes nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide and particulate matter. When homes or buildings also burn, they can release an even more toxic stew of chemicals from burning electronics, furniture, plastics, paints and much more.

What you see when you see a smoke plume or when the air is hazy with wildfire smoke are the tiny particles that are too small to fall to the ground right away with gravity.

These particles, which scientists call particulate matter, are very small – we measure them in microns. When you breathe them in, they can harm your health. The smaller the particles, the deeper they can get into your lungs and body.

You may have heard the term PM2.5. It means particles that are 2.5 microns or smaller in diameter, many times smaller than the width of a human hair. High concentrations of these particles in the air during wildfire smoke episodes are what trigger air quality alerts.

Has wildfire smoke been increasing recently, and why?

Yes, wildfires have become more frequent and more intense just in the past couple of decades, and when wildfires become more frequent and intense, so does the smoke.

Scientists have found that wildfires are becoming more frequent due to a variety of factors that include increases in fire weather – hot, dry, windy conditions that fuel the spread of fires due to climate change – as well as other natural and human factors. The reasons for the increases in wildfires vary in different parts of the world.

Other studies have found that wildfire smoke makes up an increasing portion of the PM2.5 in the air in the U.S., and in many areas it is offsetting the decreases in air pollution that the U.S. has gained through regulations of industrial and vehicle emissions under the Clean Air Act.

How could wildfire smoke affect my health?

Some effects of breathing wildfire smoke include shortness of breath, coughing, itchy or watery eyes, headaches, rashes and itchiness. But smoke can cause more serious harm. Numerous epidemiological studies have shown that hospitalizations and emergency department visits for asthma and other respiratory diseases increase during wildfire smoke events.

After you breathe in the particles, they cause inflammation and oxidative stress, and they can move into the blood and spread throughout the body, affecting other organ systems.

Breathing wildfire smoke has been associated with higher risk of preterm births and other issues during pregnancy, and potentially cardiovascular problems such as heart attacks and strokes, although the evidence for these effects are more mixed.

The longer-term health effects of wildfire smoke are less clear, but it is a growing area of research.

Where can I learn more about wildfire smoke risks where I live?

The first thing to do to protect yourself from wildfire smoke is to know how bad the smoke is and how long it is going to last.

One great place to get information for where you live on current wildfire smoke is fire.airnow.gov. You can zoom in on the map to where you live and find color-coded circles reflecting data from both U.S. EPA air-quality monitors and PurpleAir sensors that people have put in their homes.

The colors show the level of PM2.5 at that location and suggest the associated health risk.

To find out how wildfire smoke is expected to change over time in North America, you can look at maps from FireSmoke Canada and the U.S. Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program.

What can I do to protect myself and my family from wildfire smoke?

First of all, depending on the level of the air quality index where you are, there are different recommendations. When wildfire smoke reaches unhealthy levels, stay indoors as much as possible, with doors and windows shut to keep the wildfire smoke out.

If you have an air cleaner, use it, but check the filter, as filters can fill up quickly. Similarly, check the filter on your home HVAC system and replace it if needed.

If you have to go outside, consider wearing a well-fitting N95, KN95 or KF94 mask. These masks can protect you from inhaling particles in the air around you. Looser masks, such as surgical masks, mostly protect others from what you breathe out instead. They do not have a tight seal around your mouth, and when you breathe in, the air with all of the particles can find its way around the sides of the mask.

Having a tight fit of the mask to your face is important so that when you breathe, the air is going through the mask and capturing the smoke particles rather than letting them into your body where they cause harm.

If your home is leaky and you can see haze inside, consider going to a public space, such as a library or mall, with a good HVAC system. Some municipalities have designated clean air spaces where anyone can go.

Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Canada and northern Minnesota has been pouring across the Great Lakes and northeastern U.S. states, turning skies an eerie shade of orange...

Off

Traditional

White