On any given day, the hottest spot in the United States is likely to be somewhere in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts that straddle the borders of California, Arizona and Nevada. Last Fourth of July it was 126 in Death Valley, and that wasn't even the hottest day of the year. (Weather geeks alert: USA TODAY has tables of the daily highs and lows in the continental U.S. dating back to 1995.)
Hold on to your sunscreen, because we ain't seen nothing yet.
According to a new study from the Rocky Mountain Climate Organization, global warming is heating up the West faster and to a greater degree than anywhere else in the U.S., and more than the planet as a whole. The LA Times reports:
For the last five years, from 2003 through 2007, the global climate averaged 1 degree Fahrenheit warmer than its 20th century average. . . . During the same period, 11 Western states averaged 1.7 degrees warmer.
The Rocky Mountain Climate Organization – a coalition of local governments, business and nonprofits, including the Natural Resources Defense Council – based its report on data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. According to the Times, Montana, Idaho and Wyoming had their hottest Julys on record last summer, while Phoenix suffered 31 days above 110 degrees. And it's only going to get worse:
[T]he data suggest that the trend will accelerate -- with the West warming about 1 1/2 times faster than the global average. Martin Hoerling, a NOAA meteorologist, has predicted that the West could heat up as much as 5 degrees by mid-century. In Alaska, the annual mean air temperature has risen 4 to 5 degrees Fahrenheit over the last three decades.
The combination of higher temperatures, worse and more frequent droughts and booming cities is the recipe for a climate crisis, hitting the West ahead of the global curve. California and some other Western states are in the forefront of efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions and tap into alternative energy sources such as sun and wind power, but will it be too little, too late? It would help if EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson would admit that because California and other states are more at risk from global warming they should be allowed to set their own greenhouse gas standards. Now, instead of stalling by taking months of public comment.