Major cities across the U.S. are employing climate officials to help manage the response to “extreme heat” conditions, according to The Washington Post.

Los Angeles, Miami and Phoenix have appointed “chief heat officers” to mitigate the effects of climate change and to protect the city’s low-income minority residents, whom they deem especially vulnerable to high temperatures, reported the Post. Currently, heat waves are sweeping across the U.S. with temperatures reaching up to 115 degrees Fahrenheit in states like Texas and Oklahoma, according to Yahoo News.

Miami was the first city to appoint a chief heat officer as part of a partnership with the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, a division of the think tank focused on creating climate change solutions, according to an April 2021 press release. Phoenix followed suit in September, appointing an Arizona State University Environmental Sciences professor to lead the Office of Heat Response and Mitigation, according to a press release.

In Phoenix, the chief heat officer is paid an hourly rate of $62.50, according to figures from the city’s open data, which translates to an approximate annual salary of $130,000.

More recently, Los Angeles County’s Department of Public Works (DPW) announced the appointment of Marta Segura as the city’s first Chief Heat Officer in June, according to a press release.