Hello and welcome to the Memories of Extreme Heat project!
This is a community-based research project exploring how community members in British Columbia remember and experience extreme heat, focusing on the lasting emotional and cultural impacts of the 2021 heat dome.
The 2021 heat dome caused catastrophic loss of human and animal life, with over 600 people losing their lives across British Columbia. There were also deep impacts on animal and plant communities. Many of the community members who lost their lives were elderly, socially isolated, and had underlying health conditions. The lived and emotional experience of heat for heat-vulnerable community members has remained under-explored in the five years following the heat dome.
We are working to develop a ‘living memorial’ to the 2021 heat dome. During summer/fall 2026 and spring/summer 2027, we will be holding community events to reflect on the impacts of the 2021 heat dome.
We will also be building a community art project through the making of “heat squares” – fabric squares that can be created in honour of people, animals, or places that people associate with extreme heat, or to describe their own experience. These squares will be combined into quilted wall hangings to be displayed in community spaces in Vancouver.
Please direct any questions to the project email: heat.memories@ubc.ca.
Community Partners:
Society Promoting Environmental Conservation (SPEC); United Way BC Healthy Aging; Climate Disaster Project; & Seniors for Climate.
UBC Study Team:
Rachel Stern, Ph.D. Candidate at UBC Geography (Co-investigator)
Dr. Geraldine Pratt, Professor at UBC Geography (Co-investigator)
Dr. Julia Henderson, Assistant Professor, UBC Department of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy, UBC Edwin S.H. Leong Centre for Healthy Aging, and Elders Create Lab (Co-investigator)
Dr. Mohammed Rafi Arefin, Assistant Professor at UBC Geography (Principal Investigator)
Dr. Leila Harris, Professor at UBC Institute for Resources, Environment and Sustainability (Co-investigator)
This project is funded by the UBC Community University Engagement Support Fund and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
UBC Ethics ID H26-01424
