Built for events that don't end.
Disaster drills and table-top simulation exercises have long served as effective training tools for preparing emergency responders, and help participants hone interagency coordination under stress. But climate-related extreme weather events are complex and protracted, lasting weeks or even months — as we have seen with hot summers around the world.
To accommodate a wide range of vantage points, and to build durable partnerships among public health agencies, health systems, town planners, utility companies, budgetary offices, private-sector actors, and community organizations, our simulations explicitly address the multidimensional impacts of climate-induced extreme weather events, along short and long time scales.
Rather than testing hypothetical scenarios, each simulation is grounded in a real-world situation, allowing for a more nuanced discussion. The immersive multimedia clips introduce participants to situations and contexts they cannot otherwise easily imagine, and the modular structure accommodates various permutations of audiences.
Extreme Heat: Phoenix
The simulation centres on the Phoenix summer of 2024, when temperatures exceeded 100°F for over 100 days and every agency implicated in heat response and planning was pulled into sustained engagement.
It examines the year leading up to a hot summer in Phoenix and ends after the summer, but also gazes at the long decades of warming that lay ahead. The narrative arc includes stories that highlight climate science, human impact, healthcare preparedness, social inequities, mitigation and adaptation responses, technological fixes, behavioral interventions and financial considerations.
It draws on primary interviews with key stakeholders, hundreds of hours of archival news footage, and an exhaustive literature review.
A four-step cadence.
Immersion
A short clip, cut by a professional video producer, on what was happening in the days leading up to a specific event.
Decision
Breakout groups roleplay the agencies and actors in the room, and make the calls.
Reality
We revisit what the city actually did — and what followed.
Mini-lesson
A short briefing on the science behind the moment — thermal physiology, excess mortality estimation, energy grid resilience — pitched for a mixed audience.
A logarithmic timeline carries both the acute response and the planning for the coming decades. Participants work next week and 2050 in the same session — because resilience, not just response, is what these events demand, and response is usually all such exercises test.
Participants.
New York City · Chicago · Atlanta · Austin · Baltimore · Hennepin County · Boston · Jacksonville · Long Beach · Tucson · Miami Dade · Fort Worth · Pima County · St. Louis · North Carolina · Lincoln · LA County · Phoenix
What they took back.
“[I will]… integrate learning into a draft heat resiliency plan; work on translating research into policy and ‘nuts and bolts’ implementation.”
“Leverage new knowledge and share with interdisciplinary partners and interdepartmental teams.”
“Share case studies and scenario exercises with agency colleagues; reach out to folks that met here for response practices.”
Participate in a Simulation
We run simulations with cities, counties, health systems, utilities and the funders who support them. Sessions are built around your jurisdiction's own risks and scoped to the room you need in it — a half day or a full program. Tell us what you're planning.
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