DC Currently Gets About One Week/Year At 100F; By 2050, That'll Be 6 Weeks; Two Months By 2100

[hatrack]

Washingtonians love to complain about the region’s sultry summer weather. Well, get ready to complain some more. Historically, D.C. experienced a week’s worth of days where it felt like 100 degrees. By 2050, there could be almost six weeks (41 days) where the heat index rises to 100 degrees. By the end of the century, D.C. could be sweating through a solid two months and one week of days that feel like 100 degrees. This is all if the world takes no serious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Some people may say, ‘Oh, this is the worst-case scenario,’ ” says Astrid Caldas, a climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s not the worst-case scenario, it’s the scenario we’re on right now.”

Caldas is one of the authors of a new analysis of the effect climate change will have on extreme heat across the United States. The Union of Concerned Scientists used 18 climate models to project the change in extreme heat, depending on how quickly the world takes action to reduce carbon emissions.

The report includes projections for three different emissions scenarios — rapid action, slow action and no action. If the world does take quick action, drastically cutting emissions, that would limit the number of 100 degree heat index days in D.C. to an average of 30 per year — less than half as many as the no action scenario.

EDIT

https://wamu.org/story/19/07/16/d-c-averages-a-week-of-100-degree-days-climate-change-could-make-that-two-months/

[progree]

1. Hmm, so even with rapid action, DC still goes from 7 hot days per year to 30 per year

A quadrupling+

Historically, D.C. experienced a week’s worth of days where it felt like 100 degrees.

I looked at the article: it says 7 days.

If the world does take quick action, drastically cutting emissions, that would limit the number of 100 degree heat index days in D.C. to an average of 30 per year

[FiveGoodMen]

2. "If the world does take quick action"

Hasn't that ship already sailed?

[progree]

3. If we swim like crazy fast enough ...

"If the world does take quick action" Hasn't that ship already sailed?

Looking at this graph from the article, yeah, the historical (the short dark gray line) is following right along the "no action" (red line). These diverged away from the "slow action" and "rapid action" several years ago ...




And CO2 emissions are climbing again: From 2017 to 2018: World increased 1.7%, U.S. +3.1%, China +2.5%, Europe -1.3%, rest of world +1.1% -- https://news.yahoo.com/global-co2-emissions-hit-record-120010006.html

[femmedem]

4. And of course the hottest of those days will grow ever hotter.

It's not as if those two months are all going to days that feel exactly like 100 degrees.

[progree]

5. True, and there's a graphic in the OP's link for that one too

"Off the charts" is a heat index of 130 degrees F and more.

"These off the charts days — above 130 degrees — were extremely rare back in the 1970s when the heat index was developed, occurring in the United States only in Sonoran Desert in Arizona and California."

[femmedem]

6. Thank you. Scary AF. n/t