As Salt Lake City records its hottest day, University of Utah researchers are studying how extreme heat affects health, neighborhoods, buildings, mental well-being and the electrical grid.
By Jakob D. Jensen, Senior Associate Vice President for Research
On Sunday July 12, 2026, Salt Lake City reached 109 degrees—the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city’s history.
Some days become part of a community’s collective memory. The blizzard that buried neighborhoods beneath ten-foot snowbanks. The flood that washed away roads. The earthquake that woke everyone before dawn.
Sunday will be one of those days.
Years from now, people will remember—and be shaped by—where they were on the hottest day in Salt Lake City’s history. They will recall canceled plans, empty parks, humming air conditioners, and searching for even the smallest patch of shade. Long after the temperature falls, the memory of living through this day will remain.
But 109 degrees is more than a record.
For a surgeon, it raises questions about recovery after an operation. For an urban planner, it reveals how two neighborhoods can experience the same summer day very differently. For a public health researcher, it highlights who is most vulnerable when the pavement grows dangerously hot.
“The thermometer records a single number. Researchers see dozens of questions. Extreme heat touches every part of community life, and the U’s research ecosystem is helping Utah understand, prepare for and respond to that reality.”
Jakob D. Jensen, Senior Associate Vice President for Research
John Pearson — Healing in the Heat
The neighborhood around a hospital may influence how well patients recover from surgery.
Imagine leaving the hospital after a successful operation.
The procedure went well. Your medications are working. Your follow-up appointment is already scheduled. Most of us assume that what happens next depends on rest, rehabilitation, and good medical care.
But what if recovery also depends on where you live?
That is the question Dr. John Pearson, an anesthesiologist in the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, is beginning to explore through a 1U4U Seed Grant titled Heat and Healing: The Influence of Urban Heat Islands on Postoperative Outcomes.
Pearson’s research begins with an emerging idea in medicine: our health is shaped not only by the care we receive inside hospitals but also by the environments we return to afterward. Neighborhoods with extensive pavement, limited tree cover, and dense development often retain significantly more heat than surrounding areas, creating “urban heat islands” that expose residents to higher temperatures long after the sun goes down. Could those conditions influence healing after surgery?
If they do, the implications extend well beyond the operating room. Recovery may depend not only on excellent physicians and nurses, but also on the neighborhoods patients call home.
Alexandra Ponette-Gonzalez — The Heat We Actually Feel
The hottest place in Salt Lake City isn’t necessarily where the weather station is.
Two people leave home at the same time on a hot summer afternoon.
One walks beneath mature shade trees. The other crosses six lanes of asphalt. Although they live only a few blocks apart, they may experience very different temperatures.
Dr. Alexandra Ponette-Gonzalez, a faculty member in the Department of City & Metropolitan Planning, studies those differences. Her College Seed Grant, Personal Exposure to Extreme Heat and Air Pollution: Planning for Compound Hazards, explores how neighborhood design influences the temperatures people actually experience as they move through daily life.
Weather stations provide an official temperature. People experience something much more personal. Trees, sidewalks, buildings, parks, transit corridors, and even the timing of a commute can influence how much heat someone encounters over the course of a day.
Rather than asking how hot Salt Lake City is, Ponette-Gonzalez asks a more meaningful question: How hot is Salt Lake City for you?
The answer has implications for urban planning, public health, and neighborhood design. It can help communities identify where investments in trees, shade, and cooling infrastructure will have the greatest impact.
By understanding how people actually experience heat—not simply how weather stations measure it—researchers can help communities become healthier, safer, and more resilient.
Jeff Rose — When Shade Is a Lifeline
A parking lot can become far hotter than the day’s official temperature.
The weather forecast tells us how hot the air will become. It says far less about the temperatures people actually experience.
For someone walking across an exposed parking lot, the ground beneath their feet may become dramatically hotter than the official air temperature. For someone without reliable access to shade or air conditioning, that difference can quickly become dangerous.
Dr. Jeff Rose, a professor in the College of Health, studies how people experiencing homelessness navigate extreme heat. Using wearable temperature sensors and GPS technology, his research team documented the environments participants encountered throughout the day, revealing just how dramatically temperatures can change across an urban landscape.
The findings underscore an important reality: extreme heat is not experienced equally. Access to shade, trees, libraries, cooling centers, public transportation, and safe indoor spaces can determine whether a hot day is merely uncomfortable—or a serious threat to health.
Rose’s work reminds us that preparing for extreme heat involves more than issuing weather alerts. It requires understanding who faces the greatest risks and ensuring that communities are designed to protect those who need it most.
Amanda Bakian — The Hidden Toll of Heat
Extreme heat can affect mental health as well as physical health.
When most people think about the dangers of extreme heat, they think about dehydration, heat exhaustion, or heat stroke.
Dr. Amanda Bakian, a researcher in the Department of Psychiatry at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine and Huntsman Mental Health Institute, is helping uncover another dimension of extreme heat. Her team’s research found that short-term heat stress is associated with an increased risk of suicide and that the relationship becomes even stronger when periods of elevated heat coincide with poor air quality.
The findings remind us that some of the effects of extreme heat are not immediately visible. They unfold quietly, influencing emotional well-being in ways researchers are only beginning to understand.
As communities prepare for hotter summers, understanding those hidden impacts becomes just as important as recognizing the physical dangers of extreme heat.
Ajla Aksamija — Designing Cooler Futures
The best defense against extreme heat may begin long before the temperature reaches triple digits.
If extreme heat changes the way we live, it should also influence the way we build.
Dr. Ajla Aksamija, a professor in the School of Architecture + Planning, studies how high-performance buildings can improve indoor environmental quality while reducing energy use. Her research explores advanced building systems, innovative materials, and design strategies that help buildings perform better under demanding environmental conditions.
During periods of extreme heat, buildings become more than places where we work or sleep. They become places of refuge.
Thoughtful design can reduce energy demand, improve comfort, and create healthier indoor environments for the people who depend on them. As Utah continues to grow, designing buildings that remain comfortable, efficient, and resilient during extreme weather will become an increasingly important part of preparing communities for the future.
Masood Parvania — Keeping the Lights On
The hottest day of the year is also one of the busiest days for the electrical grid.
As temperatures climb, so does the demand for electricity.
Air conditioners switch on across the valley. Hospitals, schools, businesses, and homes all depend on uninterrupted power at exactly the same time. Extreme heat is not only a public health challenge. It is an infrastructure challenge.
Dr. Masood Parvania, a professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, leads research aimed at strengthening the western electrical grid against periods of extreme weather. His team develops tools that help utilities anticipate stress on the grid, improve reliability, and reduce the likelihood of outages when demand is at its highest.
Most of us rarely think about the electrical grid until it fails.
Parvania’s research helps ensure that communities can continue to rely on one of their most essential forms of infrastructure—even on the hottest day of the year.
As the Sun Set
As the sun set on the hottest day in Salt Lake City’s history, the temperature began to fall. The questions it raised will not.
The research featured here illustrates one of the central ideas behind the Office of the Senior Vice President for U Research’s Strategic Plan: the most important challenges facing Utah rarely fit neatly within a single discipline.
Extreme heat is one example. It naturally connects several of the University’s emerging research priorities. It advances Water & Air by helping us better understand how environmental conditions affect people and places. It strengthens Community by improving the health, safety, and resilience of Utah’s neighborhoods and vulnerable populations. And it contributes to Disasters by helping communities prepare for one of the fastest-growing hazards facing the American West.
That alignment is not accidental. The Strategic Plan encourages the University to identify emerging areas where researchers from different disciplines can work together to tackle complex challenges. It also emphasizes strategic investments that help promising ideas grow into nationally competitive research programs.
Two of the projects featured in this article began with those investments. John Pearson’s 1U4U Seed Grant and Alexandra Ponette-Gonzalez’s College Seed Grant provided early support for innovative ideas that are helping researchers better understand how extreme heat affects health and communities. They illustrate how U Research internal funding can launch new collaborations, generate preliminary evidence, and position researchers for larger external opportunities.
Sundays’s record-setting temperatures will become part of Utah’s history. The research inspired by days like this will help shape our future.
This work reflects the University of Utah’s research strategy: connecting expertise across disciplines to address challenges that affect Utah communities, industries and public systems. Extreme heat is one example of how research can help communities prepare for a changing future — from health and housing to infrastructure, energy, design and public safety.
For faculty, these projects also show how early-stage funding and interdisciplinary collaboration can help turn timely questions into larger research opportunities.
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