Your Fault: Nights Are Warmer

I told you to buy an EV and move into a tiny home, but, no, you want doom

No evening cooldown: Climate change is making even nights hotter in summer

Are you tossing and turning more at night? Does it feel like your air conditioner is straining harder and doing less to cool down your bedroom? Well, get ready for more muggy summer nights, not just this week, but for the rest of the century, experts say. That’s largely due to climate change.

Extreme heat was expected to blanket much of Southern California, Arizona and Nevada starting Wednesday through Friday night. That includes stifling nights with “lows” in the upper 80s to low 90s late Thursday and Friday in the Coachella and Imperial valleys and the San Gorgonio Pass, which will offer little relief from daytime highs of up to 115 degrees those days, per National Weather Service extreme heat warnings and alerts. (snip)

In the 1980s, Palm Springs had zero to two abnormally warm summer nights, but due to climate change, that has gradually gone up since then to 32 nights a year on average, according to calculations by Climate Central, a nonprofit that analyzes decades of federal weather data and models future trends. Some of that increase is also likely caused by area development that has added asphalt, concrete and other manmade surfaces that warm more than natural soils, also known as the “urban heat island” effect.

Most of that increase is, in fact, UHI and natural warming, as expected during a Holocene warm period, along with a tiny bit of anthropogenic non-UHI/land use effects. Where the people are feeling it the most is in cities. Go out in the desert and it will get cool. You also have the smog effect, whereby warmth is held at the lower level. Fortunately, we are still a 1st World and can do things with air conditioning.

And, really, it’s summer. You will have heat waves, which will make UHI feel worse.

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