SAN ANTONIO — Record-breaking heat this week claimed the life of one person, a 46-year-old woman who died from heat stroke just North of downtown Thursday.
Researchers with UTSA say this area is one of the hottest in the city.
Through years of research UTSA professors Esteban Lopez Ochoa and Kristen brown are evaluating the environments people live in in San Antonio.
They know infrastructure needs to change otherwise certain pockets of the city will just get hotter and hotter.
“In paved areas there’s much higher temps…San Antonio has a lot of highways…those temperatures are often a lot higher near those highways," Brown said.
Ochoa and Brown have found downtown, East, West and Southside neighborhoods experience higher temperatures than most.
“There's much more concrete much more pavement, less green spaces to get this balance between concrete and nature," Ochoa said.
Using technology they can evaluate the way people live and the environment they're in.
“Possible causes and also who’s being affected by that distribution," said Brown.
Meanwhile, editor for The Declaration Greg Harman is also tracking temperatures and believes these "heat islands" are a product of of how people are living.
He found just southwest of downtown under an offramp the temperature was much hotter than what was reported.
"The station was reporting 105 degrees…I picked up 115 degrees,” Harman said.
While downtown Harman said he found temps above 120 degrees, leading him to believe the woman who died Thursday must've experienced some very high temperatures.
"The sidewalk where she died was probably 130 degrees.”
“The city is the big ball of concrete that gets the sun and sucks it in," Ochoa said.
Brown said the city has made efforts to cool things off with "cool pavement." This is pavement that since 2021 has been used in the city which reflects more sunlight and absorbs less heat.
But Brown, Ochoa and Harman all agree they need more data and action to bring real change.
"We’re just getting started," Ochoa said.