Climate Central has released a new interactive map that shows how hot cities will become by the year 2100.
Called "1001 Blistering Future Summers," the map allows users to input a city, from a per-selected list of more than a thousand locations. The map then compares predicted temperatures in 2100 at that location to one currently experiencing a similar climate.
For instance, when New York City is fed into the application, it reveals temperatures in the Metropolis could average 91.76 degrees Fahrenheit, similar to Lehigh Acres, Florida today. The current average summer temperature in the Big Apple is 82.38 degrees.
Global warming has already led to hotter summers around the United States in the last four decades. Temperatures have risen by an average of 0.4 degrees per decade since the 1970s. This has led to a total average warming of around two degrees around the U.S.
This trend is taking place at different rates at various locations. Regions experiencing the fastest warming include California and Nevada.
"Our new analysis of future summers illustrates just how dramatic warming is going to be by the end of this century if current emissions trends continue unabated," Climate Central researchers wrote on the project Web site.
Climatologists working on the program believe that by the year 2100, temperatures in Boston could rise as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit. This will make the city as warm as North Miami Beach, Florida is in 2014.
The hottest cities in the United States are expected to retain their positions on top of the temperature charts throughout the rest of the century. This means summers in Arizona and Nevada are expected to be as hot as the Middle East today. The application predicts Phoenix, Arizona will see summers reaching 114 degrees at the end of the century, similar to modern-day Kuwait City. Las Vegas will see sweltering temperatures of 111 degrees by 2100, making it feel like Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. On average, the program predicts American cities will become seven to 10 degrees warmer than they are today, over the next eight-and-a-half decades.
The model only accounts for temperatures during the hottest parts of the daytime, for the months June through August. Researchers did not measure humidity or dew point in the model, each of which can greatly affect how hot summers feel. Predicted temperatures were modeled on the assumption that greenhouse gases continue to be produced at the current rate until the year 2080.
"[F]or cities in the Northwest, the Great Plains, the Midwest, and the Northeast, warming is best illustrated by a southward shift. In some cases, however, the shift is slightly northward and inland - for example, warming in coastal San Diego will make it feel like Lexington, Ky., - and represents more than a 6°F temperature increase," the developers said.
