It’s been a scorcher of a summer, resulting in unwanted records being set worldwide.
In July, NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reported June 2025 was the third warmest June since global weather data began being collected in 1850.
Forecasters aren’t predicting any relief soon, especially now that August’s dog days have arrived.
What’s a church to do?
In times of extreme heat, congregations are in agreement of the importance to care for those most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses, among them the elderly and the young.
But when it comes to Sunday morning worship, there is anything but agreement as to where would be the safest place to gather in the summer heat. It’s a question that often falls on the shoulders of the pastor or church leadership to answer. And it’s an answer that always leaves some disgruntled.
Lakewood Congregational Church in Lakewood, Ohio, alerted worshippers via social media of the change in venue for the Sunday morning service due to extreme heat.
With many older buildings not equipped with air conditioning in the sanctuaries, the spaces can become their own little heat domes. Church leaders then grapple with when the right time is to seek refuge in cooler fellowship halls, classrooms or lounges that often lack the comforting sacred aesthetics worshippers expect.
If only there was third-party resource to literally take the heat off church decision makers.
There is.
A guide to gauge heat safety
In 2024, NOAA’s National Weather Service (NWS), in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), began rolling out HeatRisk, a guide to help groups gauge what temperature is too high for the health of others.
The National Weather Service’s HeatRisk is a guide that gauges when temperatures might be dangerous for others. It’s a tool that can prove useful for congregations deciding when to move out of overheated sanctuaries and into cooler fellowship halls.
NWS developed the first HeatRisk prototype for California in 2013 and expanded it to the Western U.S. in 2017.
Katie Howe, the Global HOPE (Humanitarian, Opportunities, Progess, and Empowerment) minister for disaster response and recovery, discovered HeatRisk during one recent heat wave that had her church, Lakewood Congregational Church in Lakewood, Ohio, deciding if they should continue to hold worship in the sanctuary or move to the air-conditioned social hall.
Since finding answers and coordinating responses in times of distress and crisis is what Howe does for the United Church of Christ, she began doing some research for Lakewood Congregational.
“That’s when I found HeatRisk, which is a simple guide that is color coded by heat risk. The darker the color the higher the risk,” explained Howe.
Click here for the guide.
HeatRisk provides historical context for high temperature forecasts, identifying how unusual the heat will be for any given time of year across a spatial area with coverage across the contiguous U.S. It also identifies temperatures that are expected to bring increased heat impacts over a 24-hour period, up to seven days in advance.
The tool takes into account cumulative impacts of heat by identifying the expected duration of the heat, including both daytime and nighttime temperatures. HeatRisk is divided into a number and color-coded scale — ranging from zero to four and minor to extreme — that identifies the risk of heat-related impacts.
While useful, Howe warns that the heat forecast chart isn’t a “hard and fast rule.”
“It is important for congregations to consider the needs of their own church community. Still, it may be a helpful tool when making decisions that take measures to protect our congregations in the event of extreme heat, as children and older adults have the highest risk of heat-related illnesses.”
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