With climate change happening in real time, researchers have created projections of how much warmer temperatures will get throughout the country over the next 30 years.
In California, some of the areas that will be hit the hardest by rising temperatures include Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside Counties.
Research group First Street Foundation, which developed the extreme heat map, compared the number of very hot days expected in 2023 to the number expected in 2053. Orange County and L.A. County are predicted to experience the worst and the third-worst increases in the state, respectively.
Orange County’s hottest days are expected to go up by 214.3% by 2053; L.A. County, by 200%.
In O.C., that means the number of days that temperatures reach or exceed 90 degrees will jump from seven to 22.
Riverside County, meanwhile, is expected to see the number of days that temperatures reach or exceed 100 degrees increase from 39 in 2023 to 55 in 2053.
Some cooling effects from the Pacific Ocean are expected to take the edge off; in other words, it could be worse. Still, Jeremy Porter, a chief research officer with First Street Foundation, said that you won’t have to go very far inland to feel the heat.
“It doesn't take much in the way of spatial distance from the coast before you start to see an increase,” he said.
