July 2021 was the earth’s hottest month on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The land and ocean surface temperatures were a combined 1.67 degrees above the average.

One city in the southwest region of the U.S. is looking at solutions to help keep the ground cooler.

“It looks basically like cured concrete,” said Ryan Stevens, a civil engineer with the City of Phoenix.

Ryan Stevens and other engineers are trying to lower the temperature of the asphalt.

“Really, it gives that illusion of putting on the product like sunscreen onto our roads, and that's really what it's doing is insulating our roads from the daytime solar energy," he said.

In nine areas across Phoenix, the city is piloting its "Cool Pavement Program." It’s a lighter coating on top of the roads already in place.

“It’s not paint. We hear people say, 'Well, you just painted your streets,' we didn't paint our streets. We actually used an asphalt-based product,” said Kini Knudson, director of Street Transportation for the City of Phoenix.

The program began last year and currently coats 36 miles of asphalt across the city.

“If it’s something that makes sense from an environmental climate perspective but also makes our pavement last longer, for me, it's a no-brainer,” he said.

“The idea is to keep the energy out of the pavement because at night the pavement is the last thing to cool down. About 30 to 40 percent of the urban area is paved surfaces,” Stevens said.

Paved surfaces contribute to similar problems in cities across the U.S. Larger populations and more buildings created a higher urban heat island index -- it’s a concept called the urban heat island effect.

“The urban heat island is a situation that has been studied for about 200 years. It happens because you have buildings that can store heat differently than the natural surface. So a building will hold onto heat and hold it on through the night, and what that does is it keeps the nighttime temperatures warmer so we have this situation where we’re not cooling off at night,” Erinanne Saffell, Arizona’s state climatologist, said.

“That energy, the sunlight comes down and is stored in the surfaces,” she explained. “The more reflective a surface, the less energy it’s going to store and so it's not going to be as hot.”

Saffell compares it to how a person might feel wearing a dark t-shirt in the hot sun.

“If you're wearing a light-colored shirt that reflects the heat, that's not going to get you as hot,” she said.

“We know that heat is a challenge for our community, we want our community to be comfortable,” Kate Gallego, the Mayor of Phoenix, said. “We’ve noticed it’s not getting as cool as night, we’re retaining a lot of heat.”

Results from the first year of the program show the cool pavement had an average surface temperature of 10.5 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit lower than regular asphalt at noon and during the afternoon hours. At all times of the day, the cool asphalt was cooler than traditional asphalt.

“That’s enough temperature distance or change that you can feel it if you're walking in a community,” Gallego said.

However, Stevens said it’s still being looked at how this impacts the air around the asphalt.

“The degree of which that air mixing, does it feel hotter or not, is something we still need to look at,” he said.

The city plans on trying different colors and shades as well.

Keeping buildings and asphalt lighter is something Steve Hamburg says has been used in design decisions for quite a while.

“If you go to the Mediterranean, you would never see dark roofs. You're always going to see light roofs, because they want to reflect the heat off the roofs so it doesn't warm the structure…people have been known to do that for thousands of years,” Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, said.

The project in Phoenix will continue to see what works best to mitigate the urban heat island effect and keep our planet cooler.

“It’s going to take a few more years to be able to fully evaluate the impact and the benefits of it,” Knudson said.

The 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology and medicine has been awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

The two U.S.-based scientists received the accolade for describing the mechanics of how humans perceive hot, cold, touch and pressure through nerve impulses.

Julius is a professor at the University of California, San Francisco. Patapoutian is a professor at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California.

"Our ability to sense heat, cold and touch is essential for survival and underpins our interaction with the world around us," the Nobel Assembly said in a statement announcing the prize.

The discoveries will be vital to the development of treatments for chronic pain and other conditions, said Professor David Paterson, president of The Physiological Society in the United Kingdom.

"How we sense the temperature, touch and movement are some of the great questions for humanity," Paterson said.

Thomas Perlmann, the secretary general of the Nobel Assembly, said the discovery "unlocks the secrets of nature ... It explains at a molecular level how these stimuli are converted into nerve signals. It's an important and profound discovery."

Chili pepper

The starting point for the pair's groundbreaking discoveries was Julius' work with the humble chili pepper — or more specifically, capsaicin, the pungent compound that causes a burning sensation when we eat the peppers.

"It was a very clever thing to do because chili pepper, or capsaicin in the pepper, was known to trigger nerves or pain. David Julius thought it could lead to a breakthrough if we really understood the molecular mechanisms for how this occurs," Perlmann explained to CNN.

Julius and his team created a library of millions of DNA fragments corresponding to genes that are expressed in the sensory neurons which can react to pain, heat and touch. They then plugged genes from this collection into cells that do not normally react to capsaicin to find the single gene that caused the sensitivity.

Julius later realized this capsaicin receptor they discovered is also a heat-sensing receptor that is activated at temperatures that are perceived as painful, the Nobel Committee said.

"That was the route into these discoveries — the sensing mechanism for how nerves can actually be activated. When we encounter stimuli — temperature, mechanical, touch and pressure. The chili pepper was the handle but the discovery was much more profound than that," Perlmann said.

Patapoutian's work led to the discovery of sensors in the skin and internal organs that respond to "mechanical stimuli" that are felt as touch and pressure.

With his colleagues, he identified a cell line that reacted when its individual cells were poked with a micropipette. The team then identified 72 candidate genes that could be encoding receptors and "switched them off" one by one to discover the one responsible for mechanosensitivity.

Abdel El Manira, an adjunct member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology and Medicine, said the discoveries were made more than a decade ago but were particularly poignant given the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's the right time (for it) to be recognized. It profoundly changed our view of how we sense the world ... In the last year, we have missed our sense of touch — during a hug for example. These are the receptors that give us the feeling of warmth and closeness," he said.

'Holy grail'

Mike Caterina, the Solomon H. Snyder professor of neurosurgery at John Hopkins School of Medicine, worked with Julius in his lab as a postdoctoral researcher in the mid-1990s when the first discoveries about capsaicin in chili peppers were made.

"It had been a holy grail in the pain field. People knew that this receptor existed but there was no molecular handle," Caterina said.

"The sensation that we get when we eat spicy food is something so familiar and it has such a personal and cultural significance to so many people and everyone has a hot food story and everyone has experienced painful heat.

"So for those two very tangible experiences to be explainable with one molecule is what really made that work exciting to us."

Warm to start the work week

Skies stay clear but we won't be as cool tonight. We start the week on a warm and sunny note.

Updated: 11:03 PM EDT Sep 26, 2021

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Sunshine as we go into tomorrow the next couple of days, this is a live look in Lebanon right now we've got clear skies out that way and we're going to continue to stay clear as we go through tonight, you might see a few passing high clouds as we go through the overnight hours. But that's about it right now, temperatures at 61 in Cincinnati Harrison, you are 57 Hillsborough, 62 wall in Kentucky at 59 and then up around mason, Hamilton and spring bro, we have the low sixties to high fifties so some varying temperatures. But we're all on our way to the fifties as we go through tonight. It's been a clean sweep for radar this evening. We have had those high thin clouds streaming through today but those have since cleared out at least for the most part we're going to be under the influence of high pressure here as we go through the next several days here, it's really going to be the dominating feature in our weather pattern here this week. We're not gonna see a whole lot of variation but those south winds over the next couple of days pulling in some of that warmer air to the greater Cincinnati area. So again, you might see some high clouds as we go through the next 24 hours. That's all future cast is really picking up on here. But sunshine is going to be the story here as we go through the first part of the week. So looking ahead to plenty of that I think monday night into Tuesday we could see a very brief, just a blip of a change in the weather pattern over the next seven days, we're going to focus on that here coming up. But forecast through tonight 58 degrees clear skies, not as chilly as we go through the overnight hours. So we're not going to feel as widespread of forties as we head into tomorrow morning and then for tomorrow afternoon sunshine, I think it's gonna be breezy tomorrow. We're gonna be looking at a windy day southwest winds at 5 to 15, but that's gonna be pulling in that warmer air. So we will be treated to more summer like temperatures as we go through the first couple of days in the new week. But again, I did mention that little blip in the forecast, that little change their monday night into Tuesday. So looking ahead, what's gonna happen here, we're gonna have a very small but brief wave of energy push over the greater Cincinnati era and I think it's going to have just enough to produce one or two showers as we go overnight monday into Tuesday, it looks like it's going to be more north into central Ohio. But I think there is a chance that some of that could clip the area, several models indicating that was looking like that, that's been the trend the last couple of days. But again, if we were to see anything that would be gone before the morning drive on Tuesday. So we're not looking at anything to impact your travel plans and especially into the afternoon on Tuesday things looking really dry there. So monday, dry Tuesday during the daytime dry could see a little spotty shower to monday night and Tuesday. But that's gonna be it for the next seven days here. We've got gorgeous weather, Wednesday, thursday, friday saturday and sunday I think just some scattered clouds there as we head towards the last part of the week, we're gonna be looking at temperatures to be pretty average, especially into friday afternoon through the weekend molly. All right.
DAY TO WALK EVERY DAY THIS WEEK. MOLLIE: I LOVE TO HEAR TT.HA KATIE: THIS IS A LIVE LOOK AT LEBANON RIGHT NOW. WE HAVE CLEAR SKIES OUT THAT WAY AND WE WILL CONTINUE TO STAY CLEAR AWES GO THROUGH THE NIGHT. UYO MIGHT SEE A FEW HIGH, PASSING CLOUDS THROUGH THE OVERNIGHT HOURS, BUT THAT IS ABOUT IT. UP AROUND MASON, HAMILTON, AND SPRINGBORO, WE HAVE THEOW L 60’S TO HIGH 50’S, SO VARYING TEMPERATURES, BUT WE ARE ALL ON OUR WAY TO THE 50’S. IT HAS BEEN A CLEAN SWEEP FOR RADAR. WE HAVE HAD HIGH CLOUDS STREAMING THROUGH, BUT THOSE HAVE SINCE CLEARED OUT, AT LEAST FOR THE MOST PART. IT IS REALLY GOING TO BE THE DOMINATING FEATURE IN OUR WEATHER PATTERN THIS WEEK. WE WILL NOT SEE A WHOLE LOT OF VARIATION, BUT THE SOUTH WIND OVERHE T NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS PULLING IN SOME OF THAT WARM AIR TO THE GREATER CINCINNATI AREA. YOU MIGHT SEE SOME HIGH CLOUDS AS WE GO THROUGH THE NEXT 24 HOURS. THAT IS ALL FUTURECAST IS REALLY PICKING UP ON, BUT SUNSHINE IS GOING TO BEHE T STORY. LOOKING AHEAD TO PLENTY OF THAT. I THINK MONDAY NIGHTNT IO TUESDAY, WE COULD SEE A VERY BRIEF -- JUST A BLIP CHANGE IN THE WEATHER PATTERN. WE ARE GOING TO FOCUONS THAT COMING UP, BUT OUR FORECAST THROUGH TONIGHT, 58 DEGREES, CLEAR SKIES. WE ARE NOT GOING TO ELFE AS WIDESPREAD 40’S AS WE HAD INTO TOMORROW MORNING. TOMORROW AFTERNOON, SUNSHINE, I THINK IT IS GOING TO BE BREEZY TOMORROW. SOUTHWEST WIND AT FIVE TO 15, BUT THAT WILL BE PULLINGN I THAT WARMER AIR, SO WE WILL BE TREATED TO MORE SUMMER-LIKE TEMPERATURES AS WE GO THROUGH THE FIRST COUPLE OF DAYS IN THE NEW WE.EK I DID MENTION THAT LITTLE BLIP IN THE FORECAST, THAT LITTLE CHANGE MONDAY NIGHT INTO TUESDAY. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A VERY SMALL BUT BRIEF WAVOFE ENERGY PUSH INTO THE GREATER CINCINNIAT AREA, AND I THINK IT WILL HAVE JUST EUGNOH TO PRODUCE ONE OR TWO SHOWERS AS WE GO OVERNIGHT MONDAY INTO TUESDAY. LOOKED LIKE IT IS GOING TO BE MORE NORTH INTO CENTRAL OHIO, BUT I THINK THERE IS A CHANCE SOME OF THAT COULD CLIP THE AREA. SEVELRA MODELS INDICATING THAT, AND THAT HAS BEEN THE TRENDHE T LAST COUPLE OF DAYS. AGAIN, IF WE WERE TO SEE ANYTHING, IT WOULD BE GONE BEFORE THE MORNING DRIVE ON TUESDAY. WE ARE NOT LOOKING AT ANYTHING TO IMPACT YOUR TRAVEL PLANS, ESPECIALLY INTO THE AFTERNOON TUESDAY. THINGS LOOKING REALLY DRY. MONDAY DRY. TUESDAY DURING THE DAYTIME, DRY. WE’VE GOT GORGEOUS WEAERTH WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, FRIDAY, SATURDAY, AND SUNDAY. I THINK JUST SOME SCATTERED CLOUDS AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE LAST PART OF THE WEEK. WE WILL BE LOOKING AT TEMPERATUR

Warm to start the work week

Skies stay clear but we won't be as cool tonight. We start the week on a warm and sunny note.

Updated: 11:03 PM EDT Sep 26, 2021

Skies stay clear but we won't be as cool tonight. We start the week on a warm and sunny note.

Skies stay clear but we won't be as cool tonight. We start the week on a warm and sunny note.