How can we make climate risks imaginable before they become disasters? Unseen Heat is an online climate story, available at unseenheat.com, that explores what could happen if a city were hit by an unprecedented heat crisis: several days above 40°C, tropical nights, pressure on emergency healthcare, disruptions to daily life, and cascading effects such as power outages and the closure of public facilities.
The story follows a fictional young family during one night and one day of extreme heat. Through recognisable situations, sound design and dynamic graphs, Unseen Heat translates scientific insights into a concrete narrative experience.
The original version was developed for Eindhoven, the Netherlands; elements of the approach were later adapted for Regensburg, Germany, showing how local context can be used to make climate risk feel specific rather than generic. Developed by Climate Adaptation Services we worked with as an interdisciplinary team including a climate scientist, designer, storytellers and communication specialists.
In this talk, we will reflect on how this collaboration shaped the story: why we chose a fictional family rather than an institutional scenario, how we balanced scientific credibility with emotional engagement, and how data visualisation, sound and story were integrated to create a compelling and relatable story.
By presenting Unseen Heat, we want to show how interdisciplinary climate storytelling can help adaptation professionals move from abstract risk awareness to preparedness conversations about extremes they may not yet have experienced, but increasingly need to plan for.