How Cities Are Preparing for Higher Temperatures
It’s not just climate change, it’s the design choices we’ve made that are turning cities into inhospitable communities. From New York City to Paris, Bloomberg…
HEAT
New research shows that the amount of heat the planet traps has roughly doubled since 2005, contributing to more rapidly warming oceans, air and land. Oceans absorb most of that heat, about 90 percent. That extra heat, especially in the oceans, will mean more intense hurricanes and marine heat waves.
Climate change is making heat waves more intense, more frequent, longer lasting, and more dangerous resulting in record breaking extremes: September 2020 was the world’s hottest month ever recorded, and in June 2021, Portland, Oregon had a day with 108 degrees, which broke all heat records.
Extreme heat contributes to wildfire conditions, exacerbates drought, and endangers health.
NRDC has a heat map that is searchable by address. C2ES’ Resilience Strategies for Extreme Heat provide solutions for adaptation that be implemented on both an individual and community level.
And, if you are curious about how the temperatures in your hometown have risen since you were born and how much hotter they are predicted to become, take a look at this New York Times Climate piece.
CREDIT: NASA’s Earth Observatory
CURRENT NEWS
In America’s least air-conditioned cities, brutal heat changes some people’s minds
By Marc Fisher and Carissa Wolf Photo: Colin Mulvany/The Spokesman-Review/AP
In Boise, Idaho, where the temperature topped 97 for a stretch of 14 out of 15 days this month, Sarah O’Keefe refuses to give in. With…
Biden administration, workers grapple with health threats posed by climate change and heat
By Eli Rosenberg and Abha Bhattarai Photo: Max Whittaker
Surging temperatures across the West Coast this summer are exposing another way that the changing climate threatens the country’s future: the danger it poses to…
Instead of braving the river, these endangered salmon take the highway
By Richard Read Photo: Richard Read / Los Angeles Times
EAGLE, Idaho — The fish shimmied past her underwater office window inside the Lower Granite Dam, solo and in small groups, an endless parade of…
As the Bootleg Fire burns, locals are faced with the realities of climate change — and remain skeptical
By Joshua Partlow Photo: Mason Trinca
SPRAGUE RIVER, Ore. — Youth pastor Matt Wolff and his wife, Jennifer, followed God’s direction when they settled at the end of a rutted dirt…
Those Bathing Bears Aren’t Cute. They’re Climate Change Victims.
By Eleanor Cummins Photo: Bgsmith/shutterstock
Climate has always been one of Lake Tahoe’s biggest selling points. Nevada is infamously inhospitable to everyone but Elvis impersonators, and California is always burning.…
Yet another major heat wave is set to roast the western U.S. and Canada by the weekend
By Matthew Cappucci Photo: WeatherBell
The heat wave is forecast to bring triple-digit temperatures to at least 16 million people, challenging and breaking records into Canada. It’s also targeting an…
7 Important Ways You Can Help Relieve Extreme Heat Caused by Climate Change
By Kate Nakamura Photo: John Froschauer/AP Kate Nakamura
This past June was the hottest June in the recorded history of the United States, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Rising temperatures…
Pacific Northwest Heat Waves Impossible Without Human-Caused Climate Change
By Sami Grover Photo: Chuchart Duangdaw/Getty Images
The recent heatwaves in Canada and the Pacific Northwest caused many seasoned climate watchers—including normally cautious climatologists—to essentially freak out. And with good reason. When heat records…
Like in ‘Postapocalyptic Movies’: Heat Wave Killed Marine Wildlife en Masse
By Catrin Einhorn Photo: Christopher Harley
An early estimate points to a huge die-off along the Pacific Coast, and scientists say rivers farther inland are warming to levels that could be…
Wildfires blaze across western states as two die in Arizona plane crash
By the Associated Press
Firefighters struggle to contain northern California fire amid warning of potential for ‘extreme growth’ of Oregon blaze.
Baby birds flee the nest to escape record heat wave in Oregon
By Roselle Chen
In a failed attempt to escape a record-breaking heat wave in late June in Pendleton, Oregon, more than 100 baby birds bailed from their nests.…
Death Valley had planet’s hottest 24 hours on record Sunday amid punishing heat wave
By Jason Samenow Photo: Melina Mara
The astonishingly hot temperatures occurred amid a punishing heat wave in the West, focused between interior Oregon, Central Valley in California and southern Nevada. Intensified…
Climate Change Is Making It Harder for Campers to Beat the Heat
By John Schwartz Photo: Ali Lapetina
Jill Laidlaw has worked for 37 years at Camp Cavell in Lexington, Mich., a little spot of paradise on Lake Huron. But she has seen…
Heat wave in US and Canada summed up in one staggering satellite image
By Amanda Kooser
A historic heat wave descended on the Pacific Northwest in the US and western Canada at the end of June, sending temperatures soaring from Portland…
Media reaction: Pacific north-west ‘heat dome’ and the role of climate change
By Ayesha Tandon and Giuliana Viglione Photo: Sipa US / Alamy Stock Photo
Less than two weeks after record-breaking temperatures forced California into a state of emergency, a severe heatwave has swept over northwestern US and Canada, shattering…
Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change
By Anne C. Mulkern Photo: Nathan Howard
A blistering heat wave obliterated high temperature records in Oregon and Washington over the weekend, ratcheting up risks for deaths and fires, and underscoring the…
It’s the climate change, stupid
By Ishaan Tharoor and Claire Parker Photo: Maranie Staab/Bloomberg
In only the first month of summer in much of the Northern Hemisphere, the records are already tumbling. The Pacific Northwest and Canada are in…
A leaked UN report warns ‘worst is yet to come’ on climate change. Here’s how you can help
By William Brangham and Murrey Jacobson
A leaked draft report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change paints the starkest picture yet of the accelerating danger caused by human…
Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle
By Isaac Schultz Photo: Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery
Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the…
‘Tis the season’? Learn how change is in the air
By Sueellen Campbell Photo: Jeff Hollett / Flickr
On June 6, 1857, Henry David Thoreau wrote this in his journal: “Our thoughts and sentiments answer to the revolutions of the seasons, as two…
The people who’ll be most hurt by climate swings did the least to cause them, study says
By Chris Mooney Photo: Sebastian Bathiany/Wageningen University
On a per-capita basis, greenhouse gas emissions are far higher in wealthy countries like the United States. Indeed, the Northern Hemisphere, where 13 of the…
KEY RESOURCES
Assessing the U.S. Climate in June 2021
Assessing the U.S. Climate in June 2021
The June contiguous U.S. temperature was 72.6°F, 4.2°F above the 20th-century average, ranking warmest in the 127-year record and surpassing the previous record for June set in 2016 by 0.9°F. The year-to-date average temperature for…
Watching the Land Temperature Bell Curve Heat Up (1950-2020)
Watching the Land Temperature Bell Curve Heat Up (1950-2020)
This visualization shows that as land temperatures have increased since 1950, hotter days have become more common and colder days have become less common.
Global risk of deadly heat
Global risk of deadly heat
Climate change can increase the risk of conditions that exceed human thermoregulatory capacity.
MORE NEWS
Heatwave causing ‘biggest glacier melt in Washington state in a century’
Heatwave causing ‘biggest glacier melt in Washington state in a century’
By Jane Dalton Photo: AFP/ Getty Images 7/2/21
The record-breaking heatwave in the US northwest and Canada is causing what’s thought to be the biggest glacier melt in Washington state in a century. Milky, sandy water has been reported running into Puget Sound,…
Heat-Related Death Toll Climbs to Nearly 100 in Washington State and Oregon
Heat-Related Death Toll Climbs to Nearly 100 in Washington State and Oregon
By Sergio Olmos, Winston Choi-Schagrin, and Shawn Hubler Photo: Alisha Jucevic 7/1/21
The heat wave in parts of the Pacific Northwest played a role in the deaths of dozens of people, some of whom lived alone.
Pacific Northwest Wineries Are Shaking Off the Extreme Heat Wave
Pacific Northwest Wineries Are Shaking Off the Extreme Heat Wave
By Megan McCluskey Photo: Emily Krouse 7/1/21
The unprecedented heat wave that descended on the Pacific Northwest this week has alarmed many in the region’s burgeoning wine industry, leaving them worried over the deepening challenges climate change could bring to their businesses.
Media reaction: Pacific north-west ‘heat dome’ and the role of climate change
Media reaction: Pacific north-west ‘heat dome’ and the role of climate change
By Giuliana Viglione and others 6/30/21
Less than two weeks after record-breaking temperatures forced California into a state of emergency, a severe heatwave has swept over northwestern US and Canada, shattering records across the region.
Extreme Heat in Portland Is an ‘Acute Disaster on Chronic Disaster’
Extreme Heat in Portland Is an ‘Acute Disaster on Chronic Disaster’
By Zoë Carpenter Photo: John Rudoff / Sipa USA via AP Images 6/30/21
By noon on Monday, the temperature in Portland was climbing up the triple digits, passing 104, then 106, on its way to a record high of 116—40 degrees higher than the average temperature for this…
Seattle Under the Heat Dome
Seattle Under the Heat Dome
By James Ross Gardner Photo: Chona Kasinger / Bloomberg / Getty 6/30/21
You can learn a lot about thermodynamics while sitting indoors without air-conditioning on a hundred-plus-degree day. Maybe not thermodynamics, exactly; no physicist is going to applaud the lessons here. What I mean is a sort…
‘Hard to comprehend’: Experts react to record 121 degrees in Canada
‘Hard to comprehend’: Experts react to record 121 degrees in Canada
By Jason Samenow Photo: Trevor Hagan 6/30/21
The all-time high of 121 degrees set in British Columbia on Tuesday has left weather and climate experts all over the world shocked, speechless and deeply concerned about the future of the planet. The scorching…
Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change
Unprecedented Heat Wave in Pacific Northwest Driven by Climate Change
By Anne C. Mulkern Photo: Nathan Howard 6/28/21
A blistering heat wave obliterated high temperature records in Oregon and Washington over the weekend, ratcheting up risks for deaths and fires, and underscoring the dangers of climate change.
It’s the climate change, stupid
It’s the climate change, stupid
By Ishaan Tharoor with Claire Parker Photo: Maranie Staab 6/28/2021
In only the first month of summer in much of the Northern Hemisphere, the records are already tumbling. The Pacific Northwest and Canada are in the grip of an unprecedented heat wave. Major cities such…
Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle
Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle
By Isaac Schultz Photo: Copernicus Sentinel-3 imagery 6/22/21
Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the year’s longest day. It’s hot Siberia Earth summer, and it certainly…
