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Nevada Heat Lab study finds cooling stations underused, recommends better signage, transport and backup power
Summary
Desert Research Institute’s Nevada Heat Lab told lawmakers that Clark County recorded a record heat season in 2024 and its cooling‑station survey (summer 2025, 439 surveys) found about half of visitors had not known cooling stations existed; barriers were awareness and transport; DRI recommended improving visibility, hours, transportation support and on‑site capacity (generators).
Researchers from the Desert Research Institute briefed the committee on Nevada Heat Lab findings and a cooling‑station evaluation that point to gaps in how Nevada’s primary official heat response is activated and used.
Arielle Shinnard (Nevada Heat Lab) said Southern Nevada experiences some of the country’s most intense urban heat‑island effects, with the hottest neighborhoods up to about 11°F warmer than the coolest. She noted that 2024 recorded exceptionally high heat mortality in Clark County and stressed that heat is both a chronic stressor and an acute emergency for frontline populations.
David Almanza described a summer 2025 cooling‑station evaluation conducted with Clark County Social Services: teams visited 37 of the county’s 42 listed cooling stations and collected 439 surveys from visitors. Nearly half of respondents said they had not known cooling stations existed even while at one; for the half who were aware and used the stations, frequent use (four times a week or more) was reported and the primary barriers to use were a lack of awareness and transportation. Survey respondents reported heat‑related hardship—about 40% said their homes were too hot and 32% reported struggling to pay energy bills.
Recommendations from DRI included improving signage and public awareness campaigns, extending hours and offering transportation, formalizing cross‑agency coordination and governance for cooling‑station activations, strengthening on‑site capacity (water, staff, signage) and ensuring backup power at critical sites so that stations remain operable during outages. Almanza said the team will publish a full report with the full dataset in coming weeks and that county partners are interested in continuing the evaluation this summer.
The committee discussed the vulnerability of people who lack access to air conditioning and asked about generators and overnight cooling plans. Shinnard and Almanza said generators and formal emergency coordination should be considered as part of an expanded cooling strategy and that state and local emergency managers would need to be part of planning and resourcing.
