Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort
With each passing year, North Carolina residents face higher heat index values, more warm nights and more heat waves. These warmer days and nights, coupled with increased humidity, pose risks to public health and daily life. Prolonged exposure to extreme heat can lead to heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. As high heat days become more common, North Carolinians are using more energy to cool their homes and buildings, with many households unprepared for increasing energy costs.
Local leaders can play a key role in helping residents stay safe in high temperatures. Supporting communities starts with monitoring local conditions, identifying those most at risk, and understanding how to reduce heat-related risks to public health and household budgets. To help local leaders protect health and safety, the State Resilience Office and the State Climate Office of North Carolina have launched the NC Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort.
Applications for the Fall 2025 Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort Program will open in July 2025. If you would like to be notified when the applications are open, please complete an interest form.
Cohort Participation
The NC Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort is a virtual learning community that will guide participants through the application of the State Resilience Office's Heat Action Plan Toolkit. Through the program, participants will learn about:
- How to identify community members most affected by extreme heat,
- How to access and understand local data related to extreme heat,
- Identifying heat relief and heat mitigation strategies,
- Potential funding opportunities for project implementation and more.
Using the template plan in the toolkit, participants will build a draft heat action plan for their community.
The NC Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort is a eight-month program. During this time, the State Resilience Office and the State Climate Office will lead virtual learning sessions with heat planning and policy experts, health professionals, climate scientists and other local governments. The program will help participants build a network to support heat action plan development and implementation. Participants will dedicate an average of seven hours each week to program activities, including updating the template plan for their communities. Cohort members will have access to one-on-one advice and learning from the State Resilience Office, the State Climate Office and other partners. Participation in this program is free.
The Planning for Extreme Heat Cohort is open to staff and elected officials from NC city, town and county governments. Community organizations and COGs may participate in partnership with a participating local government. We encourage teams that include staff from Public Health and Emergency Management Departments.
- Access to trusted subject matter experts
- Professional skill building for local government staff
- Engage with North Carolina peers who are working on the same project at the same time
- Work through the heat action plan drafting process
- Build local partners for heat action plan implementation
The State Resilience Office and the State Climate Office appreciate the support and collaboration of the following partner agencies: