The number of ‘hot days’ are on the rise: See your city
This story first appeared at Climate Central.
This is the warmest time of year in most of the U.S. And if we continue to pump heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, it’s going to get even warmer — not only in the summer, but throughout the year.
“How warm?” is the obvious question. So we’ve taken a look at how the number of extremely hot days are projected to increase in a variety of cities by 2050 and 2100 if emissions continue to grow unabated.
|How many more extremely hot days will your city get?|
The term “extremely hot” means different things in different places, of course. A reading of 100°F is rare in Madison, Wis., but on the other hand, in Phoenix 100°F days are not rare at all. These days, 115°F is considered an extremely hot day there. The mercury matches or tops that scorching number only about once a summer; but by 2100, more than 53 are projected. By contrast, a generally cooler city like Madison gets about 10 days at or above 90°F each year, so the temperature threshold there is lower. By 2100, Madison is expecting more than 67 days of 90°F-plus temps.
The graphic shows your city’s extremely hot threshold: the number of days that temperature is matched/topped on average during the period 1986-2005, and the number times that temperature is expected to be reached/topped by 2050 and by 2100. This assumes there’s no significant cutback in greenhouse-gas emissions.