The Fredericksburg area is under an extreme heat watch through at least Friday evening, and as temperatures reach into the 100s, an estimated 578 households in the region are without air conditioning.
That’s according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s Local Air Conditioning Estimates, a dataset introduced in 2023 as one measure of a community’s vulnerability to extreme heat.
LACE uses data from both the annual American Community Survey and the biannual American Household Survey to provide estimates of households with and without air conditioning both at the national level and down to the census tract level.
According to the most recent data, about 207 households in Spotsylvania; 115 in Fredericksburg City; 102 in Stafford; 94 in Caroline; and 60 in King George are without any kind of air conditioning.
Though the greatest number of un-airconditioned households is in Spotsylvania, the greatest percentage of un-airconditioned households is in the city.
Within Fredericksburg, the census tract with the greatest percent of un-airconditioned households is 2.02, which includes neighborhoods between the canal and U.S. 1, as well as Normandy Village. An estimated 2.4% of 684 households are without any kind of air conditioning.
Two percent of 1,400 households in census tract 1, which comprises most of historic downtown Fredericksburg and the College Terrace neighborhood below the University of Mary Washington, are un-airconditioned.
Fredericksburg City is the only jurisdiction in the area where there are census tracts with 2% or more un-airconditioned households.
In census tract 4 of the city, which includes the Darbytown and Mayfield neighborhoods, 1% of 1,596 households lack air conditioning of any kind.
Lack of air conditioning is one of 11 social vulnerability factors that the Census Bureau considers when estimating a community’s resilience to heat. Other vulnerability factors include financial hardship; a single caregiver household; living in crowded housing or in a mobile home, boat, or RV; disability; lack of full-time employment; limited English speaking ability; being aged 65 or older; lack of transportation; and lack of broadband internet.
The Census Bureau has published estimates of how many individuals per county or city experience one or two, or three or more, of these factors.
In all five jurisdictions in Planning District 16 — which includes the City of Fredericksburg and Caroline, King George, Stafford and Spotsylvania counties — at least 30% of the population experiences one or two of the vulnerability factors, and almost a quarter of the population in Caroline and Fredericksburg experience three or more.
The Virginia Department of Health maintains a map to help members of the community find cooling centers near them. In the Fredericksburg area, branches of the Central Rappahannock Regional Library can serve as cooling centers during daytime open hours.
Area senior citizens who lack air conditioning can apply with Healthy Generations Area Agency on Aging to receive a unit. The agency is participating in the Virginia Department of Aging and Rehabilitation’s Senior Cool Care Program, which focuses on those who are at increased risk of adverse events from extreme heat. The program runs through Oct. 31.
