Report: The High Cost of Hot

As additional carbon pollution continues to trap more and more heat in the atmosphere, the higher temperatures that result can come with a hefty price tag.  Some of those costs hit our wallets in the form of higher energy bills from greater use of air conditioning.  Warmer temperatures can also have major health impacts, increasing our vulnerabilities to allergies, asthma, heat stroke and even death.  To better understand how this is impacting local communities, Climate Central analyzed trends in cooling degree days and minimum temperatures.  Of the 244 cities analyzed, 93 percent had an increase in cooling degree days.  Much of this warming occurs at night, demonstrated by the fact that of those same cities, 87 percent see an increase in the occurrence of overnight low temperatures above a threshold of either 55°F or 65°F.

Warm Nights
According to the National Sleep Foundation, the optimal temperature for sleeping is around 65°F.  Unfortunately, daily minimum temperatures, which most often occur at night when our bodies rest and recover, have been increasing as a result of climate change.  And in many places, those minimums have been increasing at a faster rate than the average temperature.  The jump in overnight lows is driving much of the overall temperature increase in the United States.  According to calculations by NOAA/NCEI, the rate of warming for overnight temperatures since 1900 is more than 20 percent higher than the daytime rate.

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