Los Angeles County has unanimously approved its first-ever heat action plan this week, as Southern California experiences temperatures 20 degrees above average for early February.
The LA County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt the comprehensive blueprint that aims to create cooler outdoor spaces, improve indoor cooling, and enhance public education about heat dangers over the coming decades. This plan arrives as the region faces increasingly severe heat waves due to climate change.
“We needed to develop an all-of-government framework for dealing with rising temperatures,” said Ali Frazzini, policy director with the county’s sustainability office, according to LAist.
The plan addresses a growing public health crisis in the county, where heat already causes more than 200 deaths annually and thousands of emergency room visits. Since the 1980s, summer temperatures have risen by an average of 3 degrees, particularly in valley and inland areas.
Without significant reduction in global pollution, average temperatures in LA County are projected to increase by nearly 4 degrees by 2050. The San Gabriel Valley could see extreme heat days (above 95 degrees) more than double from 32 to 74 days annually, while coastal areas like Long Beach might experience a quadrupling of such days.
The heat action plan includes strategies such as:
- Replacing blacktop at schools with cooler surfaces
- Installing shade structures at all county bus stops by 2045
- Planting trees in neighborhoods with minimal shade
- Enforcing renter protections for safe indoor temperatures
- Improving public education about heat risks
V. Kelly Turner, a heat researcher at UCLA who advised on the plan, praised its approach: “One thing the L.A. County heat action plan gets fundamentally right is that it centers people and the everyday ways that heat becomes a disruptor to daily life.”
Unlike earthquakes or wildfires, heat remains an “invisible threat” that isn’t officially recognized as a disaster at state or federal levels, limiting funding for interventions despite being the leading weather-related cause of death in Southern California and nationwide.
The plan builds on the county’s 2021 climate vulnerability assessment and represents one of the region’s only dedicated extreme heat plans, though implementation of similar initiatives has historically faced delays and funding challenges.
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