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SCIENCEWednesday 20 May 2015
Future for warming US: More extreme heat
SETH BORENSTEIN In this July 6, 2010 file photo, a construction worker is backlit from the morning sun while working ent climate models based
AP Science Writer on a roof in the heat in Chapel Hill, N.C. as temperatures inched into at least the 90s from Maine on current trends of heat-
WASHINGTON (AP) — The to Texas and into the Southwest and Death Valley, the mid-Atlantic is embarking on a string of trapping carbon dioxide
combination of global intensely hot days, with temperatures in some places closing in on 100-plus degrees. emissions and matched
warming and shifting popu- those with demographic
lation means that by mid- Associated Press trends. Both the increased
century, there will be a heat and population shifts
huge increase in the num- In a unique study looking at used a figure called person the U.S. averaged about had about equal effects
ber of Americans sweat- the interplay of projected days for the extreme heat 2.3 billion person days of but together they made
ing through days that are changes in climate and to reflect both the length of extreme heat each year. matters even worse, said
extremely hot, a new study lead author Bryan Jones, a
says. population, scientists tried time heat waves continued But between 2040 and population geographer at
People are migrating into the City University of New
areas — especially in the to characterize the number and how many people felt 2070 that number will be York. The question is, will be
Southeast — where the people adapt by chang-
heat is likely to increase of people who will feel tem- it by multiplying people af- between 10 and 14 billion ing their lifestyle, such as
more, said the authors of a staying indoors and using
study published Monday by peratures of 95 degrees (35 fected by how many days person days a year, ac- more air conditioning, or
the journal Nature Climate will they move to cooler
Change. The study high- Celsius) or higher and how they felt the heat. cording to the study. climates. Jones said it is un-
lighted the Houston-Dallas- likely that people will move
San Antonio and Atlanta- often they will feel it. They Between 1970 and 2000, The scientists used 11 differ- to cooler areas to escape
Charlotte-Raleigh corridors the heat, saying historically
as the places where the people tend to move away
double whammy looks to from colder areas and into
be the biggest. warmer areas like Florida,
“It’s not just the climate that Arizona and North Caro-
is changing in the future,” lina.
said study co-author Linda Several outside scientists
Mearns, a senior scientist praised the study. University
at the National Center for of Georgia meteorology
Atmospheric Research in professor Marshall Shep-
Boulder, Colorado. “It is herd said the problem is
many things: how many likely even worse when you
people and where people take into consideration the
are that affects their expo- fact that cities get hotter
sure to climate changes.” than rural areas.q
