It’s “the summer I turned sweaty.” Over the past few months, Boston has faced record-high temperatures — with Aug. 11 to Aug. 13 marking the city’s third heat emergency just this year. 

Boston isn’t alone. Cities across the country are experiencing a pattern of hotter summers and greater heat stress due to climate change. Like many urban communities, the entire city of Boston is a heat island, reaching higher temperatures than surrounding areas due to an abundance of heat sinks such as dense buildings and pavement. 

As summer temperatures rise, Bostonians are reshaping their daily routines, from changing their workout habits to scouting out public pools and coastal getaways.

Julia French, a fifth-year business administration and political science combined major and president of NEU Women’s Run Club, is racking up miles amid scorching temperatures as she trains for her first marathon.

Although she starts her solo runs at 6:30 a.m., French’s run club often meets in the late afternoon. “Most of our [group] runs have been on super hot days, like 80 or 90 degrees, a lot of humidity,” she said.

Because the sun shines directly on running paths like the Esplanade, French often changes course to ensure that her runners stay safe.

“On days where it’s really hot, I’ll redirect us to a new route like the Emerald Necklace in the Fens,” she said.

Though the summer heat can be relentless, there’s one thing that makes all the difference: air conditioning, or AC. French, who is currently on a co-op, does not have AC in her apartment. “I try to never be home,” she said. “If there’s a really hot day, I’ll move my in-office day to that day. A lot of times I’ll do work on campus.” 

Nighttime is where things get sticky. Major U.S. cities like Boston experience 27 warmer-than-normal nights annually, up from just one such night in the 1970s. For some, warm overnight lows during a heat wave can be just as dangerous as the blazing peak temperatures of the daytime, as they do not allow people’s bodies time to recover.

Without the relief of air conditioning, French has had to add extra steps to her sleep routine. “I’ll have my fan directly on me or an ice pack on me,” she said. “I’m also a fan of a cold shower in the middle of the night, when I really need it to lower my core body temperature.”

Even with these adjustments in place, some are still finding this summer’s heat difficult to withstand. Rich Johnson, a Mission Hill resident, often visits Provincetown on the weekends to escape the urban heat. “To beat the heat, the only real way is to leave the city,” he said. “I mean, it’s too hot in the city – every summer is hotter.” 

Kim Alston, a mother of two from Jamaica Plain, says her family is able to stay cool at home by spending time in the yard or out on their open-air deck. 

For the Alston family, swimming has also become a go-to activity. 

“The kids are in various camps throughout the summer where they swim every day,” she said. “We were also in Martha’s Vineyard for two weeks, so we swam quite a bit over there.”

However, not everyone can escape the city. And — particularly for those living in the heat-vulnerable communities of Chinatown, Dorchester, East Boston, Mattapan, and Roxbury — not everyone experiences the same levels of heat at home.

In 2022, Boston issued the Heat Resilience Solutions Report, which provides a framework to help prepare Boston for hotter summers while also setting it up to become a Green New Deal City. 

A core component of this plan is addressing the fact that certain Boston neighborhoods bear the burden of extreme heat more than others. 

During a heat wave, historically redlined areas can be up to 7.5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than the rest of Boston. Such discrepancies are clearly laid out in the Boston Heat Map Explorer, as well as the Museum of Science’s “Wicked Hot Boston,” a 2019 study using citizen science to show air temperatures experienced by residents across Boston.

“When you do a heat index and look at different neighborhoods, it’s really quite striking how different neighborhoods are hotter than others,” said Professor Joan Fitzgerald, a Northeastern Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs. “If you look at patterns of redlining historically, where neighborhoods were declared dangerous and they couldn’t do housing loans — which were often black neighborhoods — those neighborhoods now tend to be hotter.” 

One of the reasons for this, she says, is that these areas have fewer trees and more pavement. Fitzgerald points to the Urban Forest Plan as a strong course of action being taken by the city. “What they’re doing is identifying the hottest neighborhoods and prioritizing those for planting more trees, taking more steps to reduce that heat differential.”

While promising, Boston’s heat resilience efforts are only the start of what’s bound to be an uphill battle. According to city guidance, if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the same rate as they are currently, Boston will likely have up to 60 days over 90 degree Fahrenheit temperatures each year by the 2070s.

For some, this summer’s temperatures are ironically nothing to sweat about. “This isn’t heat – this is fun,” said Jeffrey Sánchez, a Mission Hill resident of Puerto Rican descent. “This is a reminder of where we came from, those of us Caribbean people.”

What Bostonians are experiencing right now, Sánchez believes, is a phenomenon he calls the “New England conundrum.” 

“We’re very entertained about everybody complaining all the time about all the heat, you know, and then it’s going to be chilly and they go, ‘Oh, my God, it’s so cold,’” he said.

Plus, he added, “Mayor Wu has cooling centers and air conditioning all over the place. People just need to enjoy it before it goes.”

Boston has set up pools and splash pads throughout the city, resources that work in tandem with Boston Public Library buildings and Boston Centers for Youth & Families, or BCYF, community cooling centers to relieve residents from the heat outside.

These efforts are all part of the City of Boston’s ongoing strides to tackle the effects of extreme heat and ensure all residents have access to relief.

In the meantime, some Bostonians are trying to “stay cool” outside of the literal sense: by remembering that summer doesn’t last forever. “I definitely am excited for fall,” French said. “But I know winter comes after that — I don’t even want to think about that.”

Alston has also been finding enjoyment in some of the warmer days. “I’m not ready for the heat to be over,” she said. “I love that we get four distinct seasons in New England.” 

Relaxing with his family outside of Mission Hill staple Mike’s Donuts, Sánchez offered a similar outlook on summer in the city: “We’re here, and we love it, right? Cause it’s Boston.”