The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for the Phoenix area, in effect through Tuesday evening.
The average high temperature this time of year is 93 degrees. But this heat wave is pushing temperatures well above that — Phoenix reached 106 on Sunday and temperatures are expected to reach 107 or higher on Monday and Tuesday.
Temperatures that high are more typical for late June or July.
The research organization Climate Central ranks this May weather event at the highest end of its Climate Shift Index scale, meaning human-caused carbon pollution is playing a large role in the unseasonably hot conditions.
Phoenix has already had 13 days in the triple digits this spring, starting with Phoenix’s earliest 100-degree day ever, on March 18. Typically, Phoenix would have had only three triple-digit days by this time of year.
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Greg Kats is the founder of the Smart Surfaces Coalition. He says Phoenix could be a model for climate change — instead of a victim of it. -
The climate and sustainability program at Discovery Partners Institute at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign wants to find ways to get people heat information that is more specific to particular locations at particular times, rather than a static kind of map. -
The variable climate patterns in the Pacific Ocean are associated with changing weather patterns globally. UA professors contributed to a study that found they are growing more extreme as greenhouse gas emissions are contributing to climate change. -
The National Weather Service has issued another extreme heat warning for the Phoenix area. This one is in effect Tuesday through Thursday. -
Learning declines as students suffer mentally and physically in hot environments.
