Report Examines Hot Summer Days Linked to Climate Change in U.S. Cities

Article

A new analysis shows which U.S. states, regions and cities felt the strongest influence of climate change during the summer – the hottest on record.

The analysis from Climate Central, a group of scientists and communicators who research and report about climate change and how it affects people’s lives, also shows 326 million people in the nation experienced at least one summer day with temperatures made at least twice as likely due to climate change.

More than seven-in-10 of the 244 cities in the analysis saw seven or more days with average temperatures made at least twice as likely by climate change, and 45 U.S. cities saw at least half of all summer heat made at least twice as likely by climate change. More than half the 45 cities were in Texas (17) and Florida (11), according to the analysis released this week.

The U.S. South, Southwest and Southeast experienced the strongest “climate fingerprints” on summer daily average temperatures, the analysis shows.

Cities in the analysis with the most hot summer days made at least twice as likely by climate change were: San Juan, Puerto Rico (90 days); Victoria, Texas (80 days); Lafayette, Louisiana. (74 days). There were 15 cities identified in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Alabama, and Arizona with record streaks of summer days above 100°F.

Climate Risk Insights

UST and mistEO formed a partnership designed to improve climate risk management in the insurance and banking sectors in a deal that the firms say will help organizations incorporate climate resiliency into their business strategies.

UST is a digital transformation services company, and mistEO is a climate fintech company. The partnership is intended to help insurers and banks deal with escalating costs due to what the companies say is a “lack of reliable, hyper-localized projections.” The firms say the lack of precise, localized weather data has resulted in substantial underwriting uncertainty and inflated insurance premiums.

mistEO will collaborate with UST to provide insights into weather and climate risks, specifically in the property/casualty and travel insurance segments.

Using mistEO’s weather analytics and climate modeling, UST aims to “bridge the gap between critical data and insurance product development” by leveraging mistEO’s ability to predict localized climate events with precision and provide clients with accurate risk assessment models associated with climate events.

Ports

Some of the world’s largest ports may be unusable by 2050 due to rising sea levels, and efforts to speed up decarbonization of the maritime sector and bring in new technology are vital, a new study shows.

Weather-related disruptions are already impacting ports across the globe. These include a drought hampering operations in the Panama Canal, according to a Reuters article on Insurance Journal.

The Global Maritime Trends 2050 report, commissioned by shipping services group Lloyd’s Register, looked at future scenarios.

“Of the world’s 3,800 ports, a third are located in a tropical band vulnerable to the most powerful effects of climate change,” a Lloyd’s Register spokesperson said. “The ports of Shanghai, Houston and Lazaro Cardenas (in Mexico), some of the world’s largest, could potentially be inoperable by 2050 with a rise in sea levels of only 40 cm.”

Other key ports including Rotterdam are already under pressure, according to the report. The report encourages countries to invest in increasing the efficiency and resilience of ports and logistics infrastructure to keep up with growing demand, the Reuters article states.

Daniel

The Mediterranean storm that dumped rain on the Libyan coast and caused flooding that killed thousands of people is the latest extreme weather event to carry some of the hallmarks of climate change, scientists told the Associated Press.

Storm Daniel, which had hurricane-like characteristics, drew enormous energy from unusually warm sea water, while a warmer atmosphere holds more water vapor that can fall as rain. It’s difficult to attribute a single weather event to climate change, “but we know there are factors that could be at play” with storms like Daniel that make it more likely, said Kristen Corbosiero, an atmospheric scientist at the University at Albany, told the AP in an article out this week.

Daniel brought devastation across the Mediterranean in the past week, killing more than 15 people in central Greece before sweeping across to Libya where over thousands died in a huge flood, while at least 10,000 people were feared missing, according to a Reuters report.

The latest reports show more than 5,000 are presumed dead in Libya after catastrophic flooding broke dams and swept away homes.

Past columns:

Topics USA Texas Climate Change

Was this article valuable?