Hot Enough to Fry an Egg: Cities With the Hottest Surfaces

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While air temperature is the most common way to gauge heat, it doesn’t always tell the full story. Land surface temperature – the temperature of the surface measured via satellite – can run far hotter than the air above it, particularly in blighted urban areas covered in impervious surfaces like concrete and asphalt. On hot, sunny days, land surface temperatures can exceed air temperatures by more than 30°F, making it a critical metric for understanding heat exposure, urban heat islands, and the impact of climate change on human and natural systems.

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Scientists monitor land surface temperature across the globe using high-resolution satellite data from NASA. While the hottest air temperatures are found in desert regions like Death Valley, many of the hottest land surfaces are in populated cities, where cooling vegetation is cleared to make room for pavement and buildings that absorb and radiate heat. In some of the hottest cities, land surface temperatures average more than 115°F in July – almost enough heat to fry an egg. A closer look at the data reveals the cities with the hottest surfaces.

To determine the cities with the hottest surfaces, Climate Crisis 247 reviewed data from NASA’s MODIS program. Cities were ranked based on average land surface temperature for July 2025. Raster data was averaged across Census place boundaries using QGIS zonal statistics. Only cities with at least 200,000 residents were considered.