This session brings together research on how communities perceive drought, wildfire, and heat, and how those perceptions align or diverge from climate trends in observational data. Contributions may include work on climate perception, approaches for comparing perceived and measured change, and community-focused applications that connect place-based values, lived experience, and observed environmental change. Particular interest lies in work that examines how these relationships vary across hazard contexts, ecological settings, social environments, and regions, including compounding or interacting climate stressors. By comparing findings across locations and methodological approaches, the session will explore how the gap between perceived and measured change varies by place and why those differences matter for adaptation, communication, and resilience planning. The goal is to foster dialogue across social, climate, and applied adaptation research and advance more locally grounded approaches to climate resilience in differing communities.

• A - Atmospheric Sciences
• ED - Education
• NH - Natural Hazards