Narration: In summer evenings the air temperature in cities can get several degrees hotter than in the surrounding country side. Scientists call this affect on urban areas an "urban heat island." Atlanta has one, and its growing. Keeping pace with the city’s urban and residential development. To give hope in the heat, people and organizations are working on ways of cooling their neighborhoods. Lucy Griggs is with ‘Cool Communities’, a group that promotes ways of dampening the effects of an Urban Heat Island, including simple ways, like shade trees.

LUCY GRIGGS: Everything you needed to know about Urban Heat Islands you learned in kindergarten, you just didn’t know it. Say you’re barefoot and walking toward the pool, so you run across the parking lot until you’re under the shade tree and then to the cooler pool deck.

Narration: Outside Atlanta’s baseball stadium on a mild summer...
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Promo: In the next Tales from Urban Forests, have you ever run barefoot on hot blacktop? There’s more to it than burnt toes.

Intro: As cities across the country increase the amount of paved surfaces, they are also increasing the core temperature of the city itself. Today a look at one Southern city, Atlanta, Georgia, and what it’s trying to do to do this summer to cool off. Dave Barasoain (BEAR-es-wayne) from SOUNDPRINT reports.

Outro: Hotter temperatures are uncomfortable, but they can also be bad for your health. In the next program, we learn about the consequences of living in an urban heat island. This program is part of the ongoing series, Tales from Urban Forests. The series is produced by the SOUNDPRINT Media Center, and supported in part by American Forests and the U.S. Forest Service. For more information on the series, please visit trees.soundprint.org.