It's hot in Windsor-Essex. But some feel the heat more than others

It's been two months since Windsor resident Allanah Drouillard's air conditioner broke. 

On Wednesday — the third day of an ongoing heat warning — temperatures in Windsor soared to about 32 C. 

Living in a five bedroom house in Sandwich Towne with her boyfriend, three children, two dogs, a rabbit and guinea pigs amid yet another heat wave has been "torture" for Drouillard and her family.

The couple is waiting on their landlord to get the air conditioner unit fixed, but it's unclear when that will happen. Until then, they've got fans, a window air conditioner, lots of Freezies and an above ground outdoor pool. 

Drouillard told CBC News that she "dreaded" going about her day Wednesday, knowing temperatures were only going to climb. 

"I could already feel the heat in the house. I woke up sweating and I was like 'mmm, this is not going to be a good day,'" she said. 

Drouillard and her family live in one of Windsor's hottest neighbourhoods and they're community is also statistically less likely to be able to cope with intense heat waves, like the one the region is currently experiencing. 

This sort of information is colour coded in a new app created by Carina Luo, a geospatial and data analyst at the University of Windsor. 

Luo correlated heat exposure, defined as areas with high surface temperature, with social vulnerability statistics. 

In Luo's research, social vulnerability relates to factors that make someone unable to cope, which can include their income and education levels, their age, housing conditions and their accessibility to essential services like community centres or health care providers.

CLICK: You can use Luo's app below

The extent to which someone can protect themselves, recover from or are impacted by an extreme weather event heavily depends on the resources available to them, according to Luo. 

"I just want to highlight the environmental and social inequalities in relationship to climate change," she said.