Extreme heat in Manila: plans, cycles and who is at work

A dense, humid metropolis where heat closes schools and pushes the heat index into danger. Heat plan: parts in place, no full plan found.

Heat type: Mostly humid heat. Dry heat and humid heat, explained.

Heat action plan: Parts in place, no full plan found

In Metro Manila, Quezon City has set up a city Heat Action Team, named chief heat action officers and opened 32 libraries as cooling centres. Its full heat action plan is still being developed.

Sources: Quezon City Government

Heat today

Live readings and the week’s forecast are on the interactive map. Official warnings: PAGASA heat index. How much climate change shaped today’s heat: Climate Shift Index map, Climate Central.

Vicious cycles the evidence ties to Manila

The lost-schooling loop

In April 2024, 5,288 schools in the Philippines moved to remote learning, affecting more than 3.6 million students. Source: AFP via Malay Mail, April 2024

Children pulled out of school earn less as adults, and poorer families pull more children out of school. Follow it on the map.

The cooling trap

One of the dense, high-rise city cores where air-conditioner waste heat adds to the night. Source: Salamanca et al., Journal of Geophysical Research, 2014 (summary by Arizona State University)

Air conditioning heats the street, and a hotter city needs even more air conditioning. Follow it on the map.

The farm-debt loop

Rice yields in the Philippines fell about 10% for each 1 °C rise in growing-season night temperature. Source: Peng et al., PNAS, 2004

A failed harvest pushes farmers into debt. Debt leaves less for seed, water and fertiliser, so the next harvest fails more easily. Follow it on the map.

Who heat hits hardest here

• Workers in heat-exposed jobs
• People in informal settlements

Already at work here

• PAGASA, Philippines: Issues heat index warnings with danger levels that local governments use to decide when to suspend classes.
• Department of Education, Philippines: Lets school heads suspend in-person classes when the heat index is dangerous, and moved the school year back to a June start to keep classes out of the hottest months.

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The national picture

Plans and law, warnings, rules for heat at work, cooling, money and other cities in Philippines: the Philippines country snapshot.