LOS ANGELES — While California is currently experiencing a heat wave, the impact of extreme heat is something Kelly Turner, UCLA Associate Professor Urban Planning and Geography has been studying for years.

She’s the lead researcher on heat equity at UCLA’s Luskin Center for Innovation and says heat is one of the most pressing issues of our time.

“We know that heat contributes to more death than all other weather-related disasters, but the impacts of heat span all aspects of daily life. Children’s learning suffers. We know that women’s prenatal health suffers. We have pre-term births. We have stresses on the medical system, people are unable to work, there is losses in labor,” Turner said.

To help tackle the ongoing impacts of heat in Los Angeles, UCLA is partnering with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other universities to form the Center of Excellence for Heat Resilient Communities.

This new center will be part of the federal government’s efforts to mitigate the damage heat is causing to many people across California and the country.

“Our goal with this Center is to get a team of all the folks who have been working from academia, to nonprofit private sector together to build a framework for what it means to be a heat resilient city,” Turner said.

The Luskin Center has already gathered significant data on the ways different communities across SoCal feel high temperatures. Classrooms in particular are a concern — according to Turner and her colleagues' research, “without air conditioning, for every degree hotter a school year gets, test scores go down 1%.”

They have also found that any form of shade can reduce temperatures outside significantly — an important tool for schools and school yards.

The current heat wave impacting California, Nevada and the rest of the southwest this week is caused by a heat dome.

The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued an excessive heat warning — cautioning people to avoid being outside during the peak heat of the day.

Turner says, as these high temperatures become more frequent —studying how to stay safe is essential, “the point of studying heat and investing in heat adaptation is to get serious about the problem,” she said.