The year 2017 was the warmest year on record in Phoenix, and so far in the New Year, we’ve seen high temperatures in the mid- to upper 70s.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast, high temps have been below freezing for much of the month. It’s in this context that ASU and the University of Buffalo are teaming up to study how extreme weather impacts American cities — both on the hot and cold side of the spectrum.

To talk more about this research, I’m joined by Nick Rajkovich, an assistant professor in the Department of Architecture at the University of Buffalo, and Paul Coseo, an assistant professor of Landscape Architecture at the Design School at ASU.