On January 14, 2025, NOAA announced $700,000 in grants to Duke University and ten communities – Mobile, AL; Los Angeles and Riverside, CA; Iowa City, IA; Baltimore, MD; Omaha, NE; Washington County, OR; San Juan, PR; Austin, TX and Pierce County, WA – to research and develop planning manuals for extreme heat. The ten communities each were awarded $20,000 grants for the Heat Tabletop Exercise Planning Challenge, allowing these communities to further develop local heat emergency responses. Duke’s Heat Policy Innovation Hub, meanwhile, aims to provide policymakers and the public with “localized information on heat impacts to the energy, health, transportation, agriculture, housing and labor sectors.”
These grants are funded by IRA section 40004, appropriating $200 million to NOAA to advance climate and weather research and carry out section 102(a) of the Weather Research and Forecasting Innovation Act of 2017. Funds are available until September 30, 2026.