Is It Just Me, or Is It Hot (in) Here?
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This past year, 2016, was the hottest recorded year on earth, according to a bunch of scientists. The previous record was set in 2015, which broke the record set it 2014. If one year is an anomaly, two might be a coincidence, and three might indicate a trend, right?
The New York Times has compiled the data and made a fun tool that lets you search for how much warmer (or cooler) many cities were than their normal. As much fun as this tool was, the results were pretty chilling for some places that I searched. Not only were the temperatures all above normal, there were multiple records set. Here’s a sampling of some places I searched. (All temperatures are in Fahrenheit because I don’t speak Celsius.)
- New York City
- Average temperature of 57.2°, 2.2° above average. No wonder we played softball in early February.
- Record highs in March at 79°, and in October at 85°, and record low in mid-February at -1°
- Los Angeles
- Average temperature of 67.1°, 1.6° above normal.
- A bunch of record highs in February around 90° and another record high in July at 97°.
- Santa Barbara
- Average temperature of 60.8°, 1.7° above normal.
- The always mild Santa Barbara set a few records in February, April, and July at 87°, 86°, and 94°, respectively.
- Palmdale, Calif.
- Average temperature of 65°, 0.5° above normal.
- My parents town experienced some serious heat in February at 82° and tied a record at July at 108°.
- Portland, Ore.
- Average temperature of 56.5°, 2.1° above normal
- Record highs abound with 62° in February, many days in the 80s in April, a couple of days at 98° in June, a whole lot of days between 90° and 99° in August, and days in the upper 60s in November.
Clearly, I have a coastal bias so I asked my friend for his hometown. It’s Detroit and despite its northern latitude, it was also considerably hotter than before, but it was still pretty darn cold.
- Detroit
- Average temperature of 52.9°, 2.5° above normal
- Record highs set in February at 56°, in March at 71°, in November at 73°, in December at 53°, and tied a record at 98° in July. Note: don’t move to Detroit! Is it really that cold?!?
This is all something to think about as we enter a new age in US history, where climate change is something either a Chinese hoax intended to depress the American economy or something that is actually real but not something cause by humans.
LOL…it’s totally our fault!
