'It's not tolerable anymore': Southwest residents endure more severe heat waves thanks to CC

[Lil Liberal Laura]

Source: Yahoo News

Ben Adler·Senior Editor
Thu, June 16, 2022, 7:15 PM

The Southwest suffered through another intense heat wave over the weekend, with Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix all posting record high temperatures over 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Saturday. Death Valley, in California, reached a record high for June 11 of 122 degrees. In Las Vegas, the mercury rose to a record-setting 109 degrees two days in a row. Then the heat dome moved eastward, with a high temperature of 96 degrees in the Twin Cities of Minnesota.

“Now the heat dome is languishing over the Tennessee Valley and bringing highs of 95 to 100 degrees from the Corn Belt to the Carolinas, with exceptional humidity in the Midwest exacerbating just how sultry it feels,” the Washington Post reported on Wednesday afternoon. “High humidity levels are contributing to heat index values pushing 115 degrees in spots.”

This dramatic heat wave before summer has even officially begun isn’t a freak occurrence; it’s an increasingly common, and dangerous, condition due to climate change. A 2019 study found that severe heat events per year in Las Vegas increased from an average of 3.3 events per year from 2007-2009 to 4.7 per year from 2010-2016. Since 2017, 570 people have died of heat-related causes in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, up from 241 heat-related deaths in the previous five years, according to the Southern Nevada Health District.

Residents of some of the hottest cities say extreme heat is having a devastating impact, especially on the most disadvantaged residents.

Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/its-not-tolerable-any-more-southwest-residents-endure-more-severe-heat-waves-thanks-to-climate-change-171400830.html

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With apologies to those in Vegas and especially Phoenix, these cities are unnatural and should not even exist.

[roamer65]

1. The climate deniers and RW deplorables can stay out there.

Not welcome back here in the Great Lakes region.

[BidenRocks]

2. Between petrol and electric,

My BBQ is not seeing any steaks!

[mn9driver]

3. I got a pretty good look at the snow pack across the mid to southern Rockies yesterday.

All of the snow, even on the highest peaks, will be gone by the end of the month. There are just broken patches on the summits now.

Lake Powell is just a wide spot in the Colorado river; Lake Mead has the huge white bathtub ring.

The water intakes on the Hoover Dam are almost completely exposed-they are getting closer to dead pool levels every day.

These large cities may very well become uninhabitable in not very many years. It’s happening very quickly now.

[Aussie105]

30. History is littered with civilizations that blossomed

and then declined because the climate changed.

America is not immune to making large parts of the habitable country turn to ghost towns because the basics for human existence like food and water became too scarce.

Climate change refugee flow coming up?

Las Vegas would make a lovely ghost town . . .

[Colbert]

38. Desert Population Growth

The biggest problem with Las Vegas, and the other desert communities, is that they don't possess adequate natural resources, like water, to support the population growth they've experienced in the last 40 years. Las Vegas, for instance has grown from 459,000 people in 1982 to 2,772,000 people in 2022. Plus, all the upstream communities have also grown - with each upstream community sucking more and more water out of the river before it gets to Lake Powell.

Likewise Phoenix ... 1,526,000 people in 1982, 4,652,000 people in 2022.

Back in the 1980's, Sam Kinison had a routine about World Hunger, where he joked about people living in areas that didn't have the resources to support them. "We have deserts in America, we just don't live in them!!!"
... can't say that anymore.

[Richard D]

4. This most likely is . . .

. . . the mildest Spring that will happen for the rest of our lives.

[czarjak]

26. THAT'S a depressing thought considering we just had the worst Spring ever.

[Richard D]

36. Apologies. Nt

[Lonestarblue]

5. If I lived in Las Vegas or Phoenix, I would be selling my house and moving.

We’ve already had a couple of weeks of triple digit temperatures here in Austin, which is a bit unusual for June, but so far we still have water, though we are limited in usage for outside watering. If nothing is going done about mitigating climate warming, much of the Southwestern US may become unlivable over the next decade. I’m also thinking of moving, though haven’t decided where. The combination of climate impact and Texas politics is getting to be too much, though I’ll definitely be here to vote against lying Abbott.

[moonshinegnomie]

8. im in pflugerville

[former9thward]

34. Your prediction has been made now for 60 or 70 years.

Always 10 years out.

[nycbos]

6. Re: Phoenix

[moonshinegnomie]

7. its been 3 weeks since we had a high temp below 90 in austin

we've had 10 days over 100 already this year, normally we get 14 a year.

[not fooled]

9. Oh, yeah

I live for now in yuma, a drab armpit of a town in the SW corner of AZ. It's like a dingier, cheaper version of Phoenix, without the cultural amenities. Lived here 7 years. Climate has heated noticeably during that time--temps used to go into the low 30s at night for prolonged periods during the winter. This year it got into only the high 30s, for one or two nights. Summers are hotter and longer. Project these trends forward and within a few decades, humans won't be able to go outside for prolonged periods of time without risking physical harm--the capacity of the human body to cool itself will be exceeded.

However, the dim bulbs in local government--many of whom are maggots and/or LDS = "the earth is here to be exploited and global warming is a myth"--are relentlessly pushing new development and letting large housing tracts go in. There is a massive, billion-dollar development planned south of here. Developers are executing a smash-and-grab on the local aquifer, which is falling at the rate of about a foot a year.

My point is that when you get small-minded, not very bright people in charge (or nominally in charge; the county is actually run by developers), the result is lots more people in an area that will be significantly less habitable within many residents' lifetimes.

I'm getting out this fall but shocked to see how many people are moving here.

The morons thought that global heating wouldn't affect them significantly for decades. They were wrong.

[Richard58]

40. I agree!

I live in Pennsylvania but I love the southwest. New Mexico is my favorite state and I would live in Santa Fe if I could. But I'm also a realist. I know that global warming is real and that the Southwest is going to become almost uninhabitable in a short period of time. The water is going to dry up. If only we weren't so arrogant and took global warming seriously years ago we wouldn't be in this mess. But it is what it is. I predict in the next several years there will be a mass migration out of the Southwest to the Northeast and Northwest. The fact that they are still putting in massive housing complexes in Arizona is insane.

[paleotn]

10. The great reverse migration is about to begin.....

Or at least an end to migration to the Sun Belt. New England has ample jobs, water and our frigid winters are more than likely a thing of the past. We can't even find warm bodies to fill open slots. Plus political leaders you can respect. Leave the magas down south to swelter in the "Chinese hoax."

[roamer65]

11. Evangelicals, Trumpists, Climate Deniers, or any other RW cultists should be filtered out.

Send them back when they reach the Mississippi River.

[Elessar Zappa]

14. I'd love to move to New England.

Unfortunately, my finances prevent it.

[paleotn]

16. If you do get chance, don't hesitate.

[shrike3]

25. New England's great.

I live in the Great Lakes region, but have many fond memories of New England.

[cstanleytech]

27. Same ;(

[former9thward]

35. Do you know why you can't find warm bodies to fill open spots?

Because of all the people who have moved out of there. New England will be full of ghost towns long before the Sun Belt ever will.

[JI7]

12. People are complaining about high gas prices

I get that's normal and it would bother anyone.

But there should be more attention to how we need to change our lifestyles and other things to deal with climate change.

[roamer65]

13. High gas prices just may slow CO2 emissions.

Same way a carbon tax would do it.

🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞

However, I would prefer gasoline and diesel rationing to make it fairer.

[Rebl2]

17. I live in

MO and last year they finally raised our gas tax 17 cents a gallon after many years of refusing to. It is now 19.5 cents. People did not cut back on their driving. Thought people would cut back, but they didn’t.

[roamer65]

20. 20 cents? No. If we go to 7 or 8 bucks, yes.

[Rebl2]

22. Yesterday when I

was out our gas was at 4.52 I believe.

[roamer65]

24. 5.20 to 5.50 in MI.

About $6 in CA. I have a friend out there near LA.

[ZonkerHarris]

37. I'm in Ventura CA and my closest gas station had it at $6.23 a gallon today.

[roamer65]

43. Ouch.

[Hassler]

15. This time last year the PNW got the heat dome. This year the

Rest of the country, with the addition of humidity now.. they have my sympathy.

[shrike3]

23. No, thanks. But if other people like it, what can I say?

[LittleGirl]

46. Exactly. I left Tucson 4 years ago this week

my hubby couldn't take the heat anymore. So he found a job in Switzerland.
We are having a heat wave this weekend and we don't have a/c. It will be 100 on Sunday with humidity rather high. Our monsoon ended a few weeks ago. Daily storms and high humidity but the temperatures were tolerable, only in the 70s.

I remember when I moved to Tucson in '14. I asked the guy at the Chamber of Commerce which was the hottest month. He said June. Hottest, driest month before monsoon. I lived in Phoenix in the 90s and he's right of course. June is the hottest. After that, it gets a little more humid but the storms help cool everything down.

September and October were my favorite months. The glow from the monsoons and cooler temps made it beautiful. I don't know how people continue to live there. They are going to run out of water especially since they keep building new homes and massive subdivisions even out near Casa Grande.

[Ferrets are Cool]

28. Meanwhile in Kansas

Thousands of cattle in feedlots in southwestern Kansas have died of heat stress due to soaring temperatures, high humidity and little wind in recent days, industry officials said.

The final toll remains unclear, but as of Thursday at least 2,000 heat-related deaths had been reported to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the state agency that assists in disposing of carcasses. Agency spokesman Matt Lara said he expects that number to rise as more feedlots report losses from this week’s heat wave.

We are reaping what our repug overlords have sown.

[VGNonly]

29. NW Ohio

10:15 85 degrees little breeze, terribly humid. It is hotter now than it will be in mid afternoon tomorrow, about 80. Saturday the humidity will drop, temps 72.

We've about 2.5 inches of rain in the last 10 days.

[Kaleva]

31. High wet bulb temps are going to kill large numbers on a routine basis in the near future,

[dalton99a]

32. Cockroaches will inherit the earth

Cockroaches love heat and humidity

[former9thward]

33. Keep your "apologies".

What city do you live in? Let's see if it should "exist".

[enid602]

47. Hope

Global Warming and the prospect of a great migration are the only hopes that some cities have.

[ArizonaLib]

39. The Salt ariver that used to flow thru the valley got dammed

Used to be ideal for irrigation, etc.

The valley grew in the 60's - 90's in sizeable part because military tech and cheap labor manufacturing (right to work state) grew here. White flight from the midwest and other regions? I grew up in grade schools where no families were from here in AZ. I was usually the only one.

My father in law used to work as an engineer in the midwest. The company paid for him and his family to move to the Phx area where he finished his career. What happened to the lower level/hourly workers back east? The 'jobs' left their communities..

But you are correct. The existense of this type of concrete island should not exist here. It should be agricultural or protected.

[IbogaProject]

41. The habitility line will exclude most of this USA

I saw a projected liability line for +20 degrees, which was the average global temperature back the last time we were over 400 ppm co2. We are now over 420 ppm, and the sun itself has gotten Brighter than it was even 4 million years ago. The line near NYC was several hours north.
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/

Oh and the oceans were maybe 200 feet higher back then too.

[The Jungle 1]

42. The west is the frog in a pan of water on the stove.

The frog could jump out of the water!
The west could do something and we as a nation could alter the path we are on.

[Vogon_Glory]

45. A lot of people may have to move.

No water, no cities, no towns.

Extended drought does empty cities and towns. Not only is North Africa littered with Roman town sites abandoned when the residents ran out of water, but there are a fair number of pre-Pueblo Indian sites abandoned for the same reason.

[The Jungle 1]

48. Yup

We think we are so advanced and intelligent. However we refuse to accept what is going to happen.
When you fly into Phoenix you see a blue ribbon leading to a green city in the desert. When that ribbon goes away Phoenix dies.

[Vogon_Glory]

44. Shut up, Commie Liberal! has never been a refutation of climate change

The Radical Right has long since decided that name-calling, sloganeering, and out right denial is sufficient “proof” against climate change. Proof is in everyone’s faces and has been for decades.

The fact that the intertwined agglomeration of movement reactionaries and wanna-be politicians is ample evidence that the Republican Party is unfit to govern.