If the weather’s felt unbearable lately, you’re not imagining it. Boston is entering another stretch of sweltering heat, but for some residents, it’s more than just uncomfortable. It’s dangerous.
And where you live in the city could be making things significantly worse.
Public health impacts
On one July day in 2019, the official temperature reading at Logan Airport was 92 degrees. But in Ashmont, a neighborhood in Dorchester just a few miles away, the temperature reached 102.6 degrees. That’s a staggering 10-degree difference.
“You’re talking about a 15-degree disparity between the hottest and coolest parts of the city on the same day,” said David Sittenfeld, director of the Center for the Environment at the Museum of Science in Boston. “And that has huge implications for public health, emergency services, and energy use.”…