You can browse without an account. Sign in when you want to save a building for alerts.
Start with one building
What to check first
Find the right address
Open Check a building. Enter its street address and borough, or its 10-digit BBL. A BBL identifies a property in NYC's records. Leave out your apartment number.
Read the score alongside its history
Check the winter-risk estimate, then look at past heating complaints and violations. Complaints are reports of a problem; they do not by themselves confirm an inspection finding.
Choose your next step
Review the available owner or agent details, draft a message, or sign in to save the building for alerts. You choose whether to send a drafted message.
One property record can cover more than one physical building. A missing score means we don't have an estimate for that property.
Read the map
Color and height tell you different things
Color shows estimated winter risk
Lower riskHigher risk
Darker blue means higher estimated risk. A hexagon shows the average score of the properties inside it. Up close, each colored dot shows one property's score.
Height shows recorded complaints
Taller hexagons contain more heating complaints recorded last season. Height does not show how many buildings are in the area, or how tall those buildings are.
Switch to Flat map if you want to compare colors without the raised columns.
Click an area
A hexagon opens a list of its properties, with higher scores first. Use Next for more results or Zoom to these buildings for a closer look. Your risk filter still applies.
Open one property
Zoom in for individual dots, or choose a building from the area list. Its record shows the available risk, history and owner details.
Find a blank area
Gray shapes belong to the background map. A property may have missing records or coordinates, or your filter may hide its score. In 3D, a hexagon with no recorded complaints last season stays flat. Try Flat map, reset the filter, or look up the address.
A building without color can still have heating problems.
Understand the scores
Check the time period before comparing numbers
Winter risk
Estimates the chance of a heating problem during the winter. This is the score used to color the map.
Cold-day risk
Estimates the chance of a heating problem over a 48-hour window around cold weather. It answers a shorter-term question, so it can differ from winter risk.
These estimates come from patterns in public complaint, building and weather records. HeatAhead does not measure the temperature inside a building or confirm whether its heating is working right now.
A higher score suggests a closer look. It does not mean the heat has already failed. A low score does not rule out a problem.
Some reports are missing. Problems that were never reported may not appear in the building's history.
Scores have limits. From 20% up, the site shows ranges; no displayed probability goes above 99%.
On a building's page, open How accurate is this number? to compare groups of predictions with recorded outcomes. For the training steps and evaluation results, read About & methods.
Use the monitor
Know which timeline you're looking at
Published complaints
Shows recent heat reports released by NYC. Publication has a delay, so check the collection time on screen. A report does not tell us whether the problem is still active.
The replay demonstrates a past cold spell. It does not show new reports arriving today. If the monitor service is offline, you can still browse building records and the map.
Take action
Use the information to prepare
If you live in the building
Review its history and the available owner details. Sign in to save it for building alerts. Email delivery also needs the team's alert service to be running.
HeatAhead combines public NYC building, complaint, violation, owner and boiler records with weather data. Records can be incomplete or out of date. Photos show when they were taken; they are not live views.
The public map uses building-level records. Saving a building links it to your signed-in account for alerts. The help chat answers common questions on your device; if optional AI matching is enabled, it can send an unfamiliar question to a provider to suggest a published help topic.
Maps and photos use external providers when you view them. These settings control HeatAhead's optional browser storage.
About external services
Ask HeatAhead
Help with the site
Not sure how to word it? Try a few words. We'll suggest close matches.
Please leave out passwords, email addresses, phone numbers and apartment numbers.
No close matches. Try fewer words or choose All topics.
Getting started
Map and risk
Data and privacy
Accounts and alerts
What to do
How HeatAhead works
1
Check the weather
Forecasts show when freezing weather is expected.
2
Look at past problems
Past complaints, violations and building records help the model estimate heating risk.
3
Choose what to do
Tenants and owners can review a building. Inspectors can see which places the model suggests checking first.
A student project by NYU Tingineers for the IBM Z Datathon. The model work ran on IBM LinuxONE. HeatAhead is independent of NYC311 and HPD.
Read the map
Color shows winter risk
Darker blue means higher estimated risk. A hexagon shows the average score of the properties inside it. Zoom in to see each property's colored dot.
Height shows past complaints
Taller hexagons mean more heating complaints were recorded last season. They don't show the number of buildings or their actual height.
Click a hexagon
You'll see a list of buildings, with higher scores first. Use Next to see more. Click a building in the list to open its record.
Zoom in for a closer look
The city view uses larger hexagons so it's easier to read. Zoom in to see smaller areas, then colored dots for each property. Gray building shapes come from the background map. One property record can cover more than one building.
Winter risk covers the whole season. Cold-day risk looks at a shorter period around freezing weather. They cover different lengths of time, so the numbers can be different.
See how it was checked
On a building's page, open How accurate is this number? It compares predictions with what happened in a winter the model wasn't trained on. This helps check the model overall, but can't say for sure what will happen to one building.
A high score doesn't mean the heat has failed. A low score doesn't rule out a problem.
Some heating problems never get reported, so they may be missing from the records.
From 20% up, scores are shown as ranges. No score goes above 99%.
If a building has no score, we don't have an estimate for it. It can still have heating problems.
Check your building's history and the available owner details. Sign in to save a building for email alerts. Emails also need the team's alert service to be running.
We use public NYC records about buildings, heat complaints, violations, owners and boilers, along with weather data. Some records may be missing or out of date. A complaint means someone reported a problem; it doesn't mean an inspector confirmed it.
The map is about buildings, not individual tenants. Saving a building for alerts links it to your verified email. HeatAhead doesn't see your Google password. Owner and agent details come from public business records.
When you sign in with Google, we receive only your verified email address, your name and Google's account id for you; we keep no Google access tokens and ask for no Drive, Gmail or contacts access. An email sign-in link uses your address the same way. Your saved buildings, alert choices and dashboard panels are stored on the team's own server and are never sold or shared. You can remove a saved building or stop every alert from your profile at any time, and signing out clears the sign-in cookie on that device.
The help chat uses published answers. It can suggest close matches when a question is unclear or has a typo. Common questions stay on your device. If AI matching is enabled, an unfamiliar question and the previous help topic may be sent to a provider to suggest a published question. Your Google account details and earlier messages aren't included. We don't save guide chats in this app. Please leave out passwords, contact details and apartment numbers.
The photos were taken earlier; they aren't live. The guide can show you where to go. Sending a message, reporting a problem or changing alerts is still up to you.