Climate Central, a policy-neutral nonprofit, found that in many major U.S. cities, people experienced at least a week’s worth of days with temperatures strongly influenced by climate change. In Reno, of the 37 days that were hotter than average, 25 were a result of climate change.
Kristina Dahl, with Climate Central, said the increase is a direct result of human-caused climate change. She says the metric was created to figure out a baseline to understand what could be considered normal. By understanding what is normal, they can find out the impact climate change has on a year to year basis, on a local level. The average was calculated between temperatures measured between 1990 and 2020.
“So some of those hot days would just happen naturally, even in a world without climate change. But climate change is kinda loading the dice and are causing more days on the hot end of the spectrum. “ she said.
These extra days of high temperatures can increase the risk of heat related illnesses and strain power grids … which can knock out air-conditioning when people need it most, Dahl said.
