The Brief

We all know it’s hot — and getting hotter.

According to NOAA and NASA, the 10 warmest years globally since 1850 have all occurred in the past decade. In less than 200 years, when the Industrial Revolution began, the global average temperature has increased by more than two degrees Fahrenheit.

While the planet’s climate has changed dramatically over millions of years, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are now at their highest in millenia due to pollution from human society. Scientific consensus proves the modern, rapid weather shifts we're now experiencing are a result of how we humans, largely through fossil fuel pollution, are changing the climate.

The science is clear that we’re entering a new era of extreme heat. We’re unlikely to keep global temperatures below the threshold scientists have raised the alarm about for years, and weather extremes will only become more frequent and intense if we don’t dramatically cut emissions in the next seven years or soon after.

So, as the earth heats up, what is “normal” vs “extreme” heat? How is the climate crisis affecting heat here in Southern California?

Normal heat in the Southland

Of course, July through September and even much of October in southern California, it's normal for the weather to heat up. Southern California has deserts, mountains and the ocean, so our temperatures vary widely. From geography to tree cover to local weather patterns, there are a lot of factors that naturally make some parts of Southern California hotter than others. My colleague, science reporter Jacob Margolis, explains in more detail in this story.

'Extreme' vs 'normal' heat

What’s normal versus extreme depends on where you live — after all, what’s considered a hot day in Santa Monica is a far cry from a hot day in Palm Springs.

The climate crisis is shifting average temperatures hotter — not every day, or every season, but it’s driving an average increase in both day and nighttime temperatures.

How the climate crisis is expected to affect heat in California.

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Courtesy of the California Legislative Analyst's Office

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That also means longer and more frequent “heat waves,” during which temperatures reach higher extremes and stay there for longer periods of time. A week-long heat wave in early September 2022 was the hottest and longest in the state’s record for that month, which is already one of the hottest months in California.

“Whether you're on the coast, whether you're in the mountains, whether you're in the deserts, whether you're in between, all those averages are going up,” said Alex Tardy, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service (NWS) San Diego office.

In Southern California, the most rapid and dramatic increases are happening in the deserts and the mountains, already extreme environments, Tardy said.

Doing the math

Since 1901, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has collected temperature records from weather stations across the country. They use that information, combined with other data and computer models to calculate specific “climate normals” for different regions.

The “normals” add up to a 30-year average temperature, or what’s considered a long-term average temperature. NOAA’s National Weather Service uses those average temperatures to decide whether a heat event is extreme or not.

“Abnormal heat is typically daytime temperatures 10 to as much as 20 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the long-term average,” said Tardy. “When we talk about a heat wave, what we're talking about is really two or more days when temperatures are much above average.”

NOAA's latest climate normals map showing the normals from 1991-2020 minus 1981-2010 normals. Most of the U.S. shows significant warming, especially in the West, Southwest and East, where soem normals jumped by a whole degree already.

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Courtesy of NOAA

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Since our bodies take time to acclimate to changes in temperature, those averages depend on the time of year. For example, Tardy said that an abnormal threshold in mid-July in L.A would be 90 degrees, whereas it would be 110 degrees in Palm Springs.

“We look at the heat risk, we look at the departure from normal, we look at the ability for someone to be able to acclimate to the heat,” Tardy said. “We don't just look at the fact that it's a hundred degrees and that requires a heat warning.”

Every 10 years, NOAA recalculates the climate normals — most recently in 2020 — and overall, averages are going up.

“Normals and averages — it's always been a moving target, but the target is moving up and up and up and warmer and warmer and that's what we've seen the past 10 years,” said Tardy.

Six of the last 10 years have been the hottest on record in Southern California, Tardy said.

Ranking heat waves like hurricanes 

When the NWS sees abnormal temperatures in the forecast, that can spark a heat watch or excessive heat warning or advisory. These warnings are meant to help individuals stay safe, inform governments and businesses, and can trigger some legal protections for outdoor workers.

NWS is currently prototyping an extreme heat risk scale that will more directly communicate how different heat extremes translate to health risk. They've already used it in tweets about the current heat wave:

Tardy said improving early communication about the dangers of heat is especially important as the climate crisis makes heat more extreme and frequent — already, heat kills more people than any other weather event in the U.S.

“Heat is a very silent killer,” Tardy said. “It's not something that we see like a hurricane or a flood or a winter storm. It's something that just kind of catches up to you over time. It's one of those things that a lot of people don't take seriously until it happens to them.”

The idea is to rank heat waves similar to how we rank hurricanes. California lawmakers also passed a bill in 2022 requiring a statewide heat wave ranking system by 2025.

The prototype scale for ranking heat waves amid a changing climate.

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Courtesy of NOAA

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“People can really relate to the magnitude or the potential impact on a five versus a one [for a hurricane],” Tardy said. “So we're trying to do that also with heat.”

NOAA’s current prototype, which you can peruse here, uses a color scale to indicate how dangerous forecasted temperatures may be to health. NWS is currently using it to inform its official heat alerts, but it will likely be a few years before it’s used in widespread public communication.

“The overall magnitude of the event — not just, 'It's 110 degrees' — that's something we're really trying to focus on more,” Tardy said.

The scale forecasts seven days in advance and allows a more nuanced view of heat as it relates to health by incorporating data about:

• How significantly above normal the temperatures are at your location.
• The time of the year. 
• How long the unusual heat will last (will overnight temperatures get low enough to lower heat stress? How much warmer than average will those temperatures be?)

Weather forecasting has gotten a lot better, and it is another tool to save lives amid the climate crisis, Tardy said. He hopes the heat risk scale will better communicate the health dangers of heat and help people better protect themselves and their loved ones amid our hotter normal.

“We have to do a better job ingraining it into the culture — that it's not just hot all the time, it's not just hot because it's summer,” Tardy said. “When we start talking about heat alerts or heat warnings, it's something that should be treated as, ‘Hey, this is very unusual.’ And we can't just treat the day or the activity as normal.”

Staying safe in the heat

Nearly 150 graduating high school seniors who’ve experienced homelessness were celebrated Thursday at a ceremony held by the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Some of the students, who came from 60 schools around the region, had been chronically unhoused, struggled with finding transportation to school or didn’t know where they were going to sleep at night.

But educators said the 13th annual graduate recognition ceremony, held in downtown L.A., wasn't just about the “tremendous obstacles” they had to overcome to earn their diplomas. It was a celebration of their resilience and of their futures.

Sadie Stockdale Jefferson, executive director of the LAUSD Education Foundation, said the honored students have proven they can weather a storm.

“ You deserved calm waters, you deserved a boring, easy journey to get across the stage this morning,” she said during the ceremony. “And while it's absolutely unfair that you've had to be so resilient … look around the room, all the people here today, [and] how incredibly proud everyone is of you.”

Students’ stories

During the ceremony, the students listened to speeches from educators and classmates, some were awarded scholarships and others won raffled gift baskets with themes like “college move in” or “cozy night.”

The seniors were joined by friends, family and loved ones who helped support them on their way to the graduation stage.

After they get their diplomas next month, many of the students will go on to attend college — some of them at Ivy League universities — enroll in trade schools or join the military, among other plans.

Daniel Jammal, an 18-year-old from John Marshall High School in Los Feliz, told LAist he lived in Syria for most of his life before flying to California about three years ago, all on his own.

His most impactful memories include using Google Translate to get through class assignments, making new friends and video chatting with his family “where they support me even with the distance and the miles — the thousands of miles,” he said.

Jammal lived in Syria during the civil war, during which his uncle was injured. He said the wounds were treatable, but his uncle didn’t have access to the healthcare he needed and later died.

“ His legacy and honor still lives in me and motivates me every single day to push harder and study biomedical engineering,” he said.

Jammal said he will be going to Dartmouth College in New Hampshire in the fall. His goal is to one day create devices that will help people in healthcare, especially those facing discrimination or accessibility issues, he said.

Lesley Davila, 18, from Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School in South Park, said she wants to become a flight attendant to learn more about the world and other cultures.

Davila had a message for other students: You are capable of doing anything.

“ You're more than capable,” she said. “You have to believe in yourself and go for it, no matter what they tell you.”

After the ceremony, each of the students was given a $100 gift card and a new laptop.

Cheering them on

Denise Miranda, the school district’s  director of student support programs, said the ceremony is a result all educators want to see.

While in school, some of the students didn’t have a parent or guardian in the picture. Others stayed with extended family or couch-surfed with friends. Miranda said the role of the Homeless Education Office is to help monitor attendance, support students with basic needs and be “that caring adult so they can thrive successfully every day as they come to school within LAUSD.”

Elsy Rosado,  administrator of LAUSD’s Student Support and Attendance Services branch, compared the process to an onion — peeling back layers of life so the students can do their best at school each day.

“ There were probably moments when this day may have felt far away. Moments of stress, uncertainty, exhaustion and doubt,” Rosado said during the ceremony. “But despite all of that, you are here and you made it.”

“A high school diploma is not the end,” she continued. “It is the beginning of new opportunities, new experiences and new possibilities.”

California State University officials have renewed the system's contract with OpenAI, a leading generative artificial intelligence company that has established business deals with universities across the country.

Under the renewed contract, the CSU will pay $13 million a year to use OpenAI’s ChatGPT college product for three years, “with the option to cancel annually with advance notice,” said CSU spokesperson Amy Bentley-Smith. The new agreement also expands access to 675,000 users (up from 500,000) and enables students to continue using the product up to one year after graduation.

University officials say providing access to quality AI tools is an equity issue and that the CSU needs to prepare students for the future.

But when ChatGPT was first implemented across the system, faculty raised concerns about AI’s toll on the environment. They also noted that chatbots have been known to generate inaccurate information and can have built-in racial and gender biases. Some students and faculty still refuse to use it.

According to Bentley-Smith, the CSU’s decision to renew the contract “was made following extensive evaluation and input from across the system. Our stakeholders, including the CSU’s Generative AI Advisory Committee and its three subcommittees unanimously recommended renewing the contract. ... This was not a one-time consultation, but an ongoing and iterative process intended to balance innovation, risk management and educational outcomes.”

"We recognize that artificial intelligence is a topic that has sparked important debate and a wide range of perspectives, and we take seriously the concerns expressed about the ethical and responsible use of AI,” Bentley-Smith added. She also noted that, under the new contract, “the per-subscriber cost is lower than during the first contract [with OpenAI] and substantially lower than the price offered by any other vendor.”

Public records obtained by LAist showed that under the system’s first contract with the company, CSU paid a much better rate than other universities, albeit for a lot more users — roughly $1.9 million dollars to make ChatGPT available to 40,000 users during the first six months of 2025. Then, from July 2025 to June 2026, the university system paid another $15 million to make the product available to 500,000 users.

The system is now carrying out 63 faculty-led projects, aiming to use AI to revamp pedagogy in everything from Japanese language instruction to computer science.

CONCORD, N.C. — Kyle Busch, a two-time Cup Series champion who won more races than anyone across NASCAR's three national series, has died. He was 41.

The Busch Family, Richard Childress Racing and NASCAR issued a joint statement Thursday saying that Busch died after being hospitalized. No cause of death was given.

Busch's family said earlier Thursday that he was hospitalized with a "severe illness," three days before he was to compete at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Busch was the younger brother of Kurt Busch, a NASCAR Hall of Famer.

"Our entire NASCAR family is heartbroken by the loss of Kyle Busch," the statement said. "A future Hall of Famer, Kyle was a rare talent, one who comes along once in a generation. He was fierce, he was passionate, he was immensely skilled and he cared deeply about the sport and fans.

The statement went on to say that "throughout a career that spanned more than two decades, Kyle set records in national series wins, won championships at NASCAR's highest level and fostered the next generation of drivers as an owner in the Truck Series. His sharp wit and competitive spirit sparked a deep emotional connection with race fans of every age, creating the proud and loyal 'Rowdy Nation.'"

The news comes 11 days after Busch radioed into his crew near the end of a Cup Series race at Watkins Glen asking a doctor to give him a "shot" after he finished the race. According to the TV broadcast, Busch had been struggling with a sinus cold that was exacerbated by the intense G-forces and elevation changes at the New York road course.

Busch finished the race in eighth place.

In this Nov. 17, 2019, file photo, Kyle Busch holds up the trophy in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series in Homestead, Fla.

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Terry Renna

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AP

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Busch competed at Dover last weekend and won the Trucks Series race for Richard Childress Racing. He finished 17th at the NASCAR All-Star race.

"Absolute shock. Very hard to process," veteran NASCAR driver Brad Keselowski posted on social media.

NASCAR driver and former teammate Denny Hamlin posted on social media: "Absolutely cannot comprehend this news. We just need to think of his family during this time. We love you KB."

A polarizing figure known as "Rowdy" and "Wild Thing" for his post-race fights, regular feuds with other drivers and sometimes outlandish behavior, the multi-talented Busch stormed on the Cup Series scene in 2005 by winning Rookie of the Year.

He went on to win championships in 2015 and 2019 for Joe Gibbs Racing.

From Las Vegas, Busch experienced unrivaled success across NASCAR's three national series winning a combined 234 Cup, O'Reilly Auto Parts and Trucks Series races. He had 63 Cup victories along with 102 O'Reilly Auto Parts wins and 69 Trucks victories — both records.

Kyle Busch was said to be ready to race at NASCAR's top level at 16, but a cigarette settlement banned his debut and he had to wait until he was a 18. At the time Kurt Busch said "if you think I'm good, wait until you see my brother."

Busch is survived by his wife Samantha and children Brexton and Lennix.
Copyright 2026 NPR

If there were such a thing as the perfect résumé for hosting The Great American Baking Show, Los Angeles-based actor, writer and comedian Casey Wilson (Happy Endings, SNL) might be the one to have it — despite the fact that she doesn’t bake

She has the sketch comedy and acting experience to pull off the show’s opening skits and introductions to the baking challenges. But also, when it comes to chatting with the bakers throughout the episodes, Wilson literally wrote a book (an audiobook, fittingly) titled The Art of Small Talk with fellow actor, writer and comedian Jessica St. Clair.

What’s unique about making small talk during the Baking Show, which Wilson has co-hosted for four seasons now for The Roku Channel — the latest with her friend and former Black Monday co-star Andrew Rannells (Girls, Another Simple Favor) — is making chit-chat with someone who’s trying to focus on making some elaborate cake, bread or pastry, and likely also pretty stressed.

“ In real life,” Wilson told LAist, “if you saw the emotional state of the people that are baking, you would immediately know, ‘Let me back up and allow them their space.’ Meanwhile, [the producers] are like, ‘Go on in.’ And Andrew and I always say, we're like, ‘Tell us about your grandpa.’”

Luckily, the contestants are good-natured about the whole thing. And Wilson and Rannells’ repartee with the contestants, each other and judges Paul Hollywood and Prue Leith just add to the overall good vibes of the competition — in keeping with the tradition of the much-beloved original British version of the show.

An added bonus of the American version is some of the cultural confusion that arises, like this exchange featured in the trailer about “box cake”:

Wilson spoke with LAist about what goes on behind the scenes of The Great American Baking Show (the latest season of which premiered on The Roku Channel on May 11) and her top picks for baked goods in Los Angeles.

LA bakeries to check out for non-bakers (and bakers who want a break)

When she’s home in L.A., Wilson says, she’s not so much into baking herself, but because of that, she knows where to go to get a good cake, dessert or bread. She offered this list of her top picks:

• SusieCakes (various locations) :  “I know now it's, like, a chain, but in L.A., I love SusieCakes, and I wanna shout it out. If you have forgotten someone's birthday, it's amazing to order on DoorDash and they have like this old-fashioned cake [...] and they'll write on it. […]  It's wonderful and truly the best cake and cupcakes."
• Lark Cake Shop (Silver Lake): “ Lark, which is a small bakery in Silver Lake; they have an ice box cake that is tremendous. It's incredible.”
• Claudine Kitchen & Bakeshop (Encino):  ”I live in Los Feliz, so that's a drive, and I will embark on it to get these s'mores bites. [...] If I have them, people are angry that I don't have more, and it's the greatest dessert ever.”
• Cake Monkey (Mid-City):  ”My son has celiac disease, so we're always trying to look for gluten-free, which is hard to find, you know, especially for a kid. [...] Cake Monkey is a bakery, more like a Mid-City area, and they have an incredible gluten-free triple berry cake that's great, and they just have a lot of gluten-free options that are awesome.”
•  Breadblok (Silver Lake): “It's all gluten-free breads, and they have some desserts too. They have a brown butter chocolate chip cookie that's wrong — should be illegal. But their breads are so good, and it's for everybody. People go there that aren't even gluten-free because it's just that good.”

The BTS of GBBO (and GABS)

The Great American Baking Show films at the same English countryside location and with the same crew as The Great British Bake Off (titled The Great British Baking Show in the U.S.), many of whom, Wilson explained, have been with the show since the beginning.

One thing Wilson said people are sometimes surprised to learn is that there are no retakes and the time constraints on the baking challenges are very real.

“It's very pure in that sense,” Wilson said. “They have exactly that amount of time. And even a couple times when it was time to say, ‘Bakers, your time is up,’ I would walk slowly 'cause I'd see somebody needing more time and [the producers] are like, 'We see you! Walk!'"

Another surprise to her, Wilson said: “You cannot believe how many camera people there are — I mean, 12 roaming at all times” to capture the bakers’ moves.“ It's kind of like The Truman Show, basically.”

And while you might assume that the short skits that she and Rannells film that introduce each episode’s theme are filmed all at once, they’re not. Instead, they’re always filmed in the early morning hours of the second day of each episode’s two-day shoot.

As for what happens during the week, when filming is done, Wilson explained, “ The poor bakers, they have to practice so much, so they're basically like hostages in their apartments, baking every second. But Andrew and I were a bit more footloose and fancy free, you might say. So we bopped around and we saw shows and we hung out a lot with Paul Hollywood, who I love, and it was just a dream.”