Phoenix Could Become Uninhabitable From Longer Stretches Of Dangerous Heat

Last year was Phoenix's hottest summer on record since 1985. Could those hot temperatures soon cause Phoenix to be unlivable?

According to ABC 15, the Valley is seeing longer stretches of dangerously hot days, above-average temperatures, and more days setting heat records.

Arizona's State Climatologist, Nancy Selover, said that the trend is becoming increasingly familiar. According to Selover, daytime temperatures in the Phoenix area are about 2.5 degrees warmer that they were decades ago.

Selover says that Phoenix isn't the only place experiencing this change, however. "The kind of increase we're seeing in Phoenix is the same kind of increase we're seeing around the rest of the state," Selover said.

2.5 degree doesn't really seem like that big of a difference, but according to Sean Sublette, a meteorologist at Climate Central, it's actually sparking a huge change. Sublette said, "Think about that classic bell curve. A small increase in the average gives you a big increase in the extremes. In this case in extreme heat."

“From a climate standpoint we’re seeing an increase, yes it’s warming, there’s no question of that and we need to deal with it. We’ll try to change the trajectory in the future, but right now our best bet is we’re going to also have to adapt and mitigate it,” explained Selover.

Sublette said, "It's manageable but we can't just sit around waiting to be productive in mitigating this problem."

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