Overview:
Summer in Memphis can be more dangerous — and more expensive.
Summer is coming.
In Game of Thrones, those would be the House Memphis words.
The city has settled pleasantly into a mild Spring with colorful flowers, green leaves, those weird, squiggly pollen things, egg hunts, sweater mornings, patio afternoons, and picture-perfect trips to the farmer’s market. But Mother Nature will soon break out her heat blaster, smash the pedal to the metal, and refuse to relent until we’re carving the Thanksgiving turkey.
Not trying to bum you out here. But again: Summer is coming.
To prepare for summer 2026, we broke out last year’s Heat Watch report. A big team of scientists and community members mapped that famous Memphis heat one day last year and wrapped it up in a report. It found the city’s hottest temperature that day, its hottest places, coolest places, and the temperature differences between them.
That day was July 23rd. On that day, 78 community data collectors fanned out across the city with sensors on their cars and collected more than 131,000 unique measurements of air temperature and relative humidity. They followed 18 routes spanning 200 square miles of Memphis.
The maximum temperature that day was 102.2 degrees. The difference between the hottest and coolest places at the time was 14.4 degrees. It was predictably coolest in the morning (high of 86 degrees), hottest in the afternoon (high of 102 degrees), and returned to around 86 degrees that evening.
Where? Here’s what the report says:
“The maps indicate that throughout the day, heat concentrates in highly developed areas of Downtown Memphis, near the airport, and along major corridors such as Poplar Avenue, Jackson Avenue, Summer Avenue, Lamar Avenue, and East Shelby Drive, while cooler air is found at more heavily tree-canopied areas such as Overton Park as well as in the southwestern and eastern portions of the study area.”
For the first time, Memphis could see its heat on a map. Places with impervious surfaces — like asphalt and concrete — were hottest, of course. These were industrial sites, city centers, and Memphis International Airport. Places with lots of trees and shade, of course, were coolest — places like parks and those leafy suburbs out east.
Neat-o, right? Yes, but that map is really intended to help local leaders protect those most vulnerable to that hot, Memphis heat.
”Extreme heat is the deadliest of all natural disasters, and its impacts fall unevenly across communities.”
2025 Heat Watch Campaign
“Extreme heat is the deadliest of all natural disasters, and its impacts fall unevenly across communities,” reads the report. “Location matters. Neighborhoods with limited greenspace, fewer resources, and higher rates of health vulnerability face greater risk, while critical infrastructure systems, such as energy and transportation, strain under high temperatures. Understanding where and when heat concentrates in cities is essential for protecting public health, guiding interventions, and building resilience.”
This is the reason the heat map project was coordinated by The Works, Inc., The University of Memphis, and the city of Memphis in partnership with the Center for Collaborative Heat Monitoring. Protecting disadvantaged communities from extreme heat is also a major motivator for the city of Memphis in its climate change plan.
That plan says 18 people have died here since 2010 directly because of extreme heat. The smog created by heat, too, can cause dangerous conditions for those with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
“Extreme heat has a higher likelihood to impact public health than any other climate-related hazard,” reads the Memphis Area Climate Action Plan. “Individuals who are more exposed to high temperatures (e.g., those without reliable space cooling systems, the unhoused, or those who work in an outdoor setting), sensitive to extreme heat’s impacts (e.g., the elderly, infants, people with chronic illness), and/or are less able to respond and prepare for its impacts are particularly at risk of heat related illness or death.”
Extreme heat also strains the finances of Memphians already strained by poverty. Memphis faces the most significant energy burden in the country, the report says. That means Memphians spend more of their annual budgets on energy than anywhere in the country (even though energy rates here among the lowest in the country, according to Memphis Light, Gas & Water).
“Where the average U.S. household spends around 3.5 percent of their income on energy costs, the average Memphis household spends 6.2 percent,” reads the report. “Low-income households, however, spend upwards of 25 percent of their income on energy bills alone.”