Year-round temperatures have warmed around the world. In most locations summers are already warmer than they used to be. Based on climate models that factor in past, current, and projected greenhouse gas emissions, they’re going to get dramatically hotter by century’s end if carbon pollution continues to rise.
Those increasing temperatures will be exacerbated in cities large and small due to urban heat island effect — which can make cities up to 14°F (7.8°C) warmer than surrounding natural landscapes. Currently, about 54 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, and by 2050 the urban population is expected to grow by 2.5 billion people. As climate change impacts continue, weather patterns may shift bringing increasing weather variability along with the hotter summer time temperatures. These impacts can threaten public health and the economy.
Climate Central created the interactive below to explore future summer time temperatures for 1,001 US Cities.. It shows how the average summer high in the future in each of these cities compares to other cities of today. In many cases, the climate shift places cities in entirely new temperature zones. Indeed, many locations in the United States have already seen changes in their USDA Hardiness zone classifications just since 1995.
For methodology used by Climate Central, click here.