The summer of 2018 has been extremely hot in the Palm Springs area – though you already know this from the sweats stains on your clothes, your high electric bills, and the large number of hours you have spent binging on Netflix instead of going outside. Remarkably, as hot as it has been, a new report says that the Coachella Valley is going to get even hotter by the end of the century.
California’s fourth Climate Change Assessment took a look at the entire state, but what it found about what’s in store for the desert region of California that is most startling.
The Inland Deserts region is the hottest and driest region of California, with a desert climate that varies primarily due to elevation. The region’s climate is becoming more extreme, with daily average high temperatures projected to increase by 8-14ºF by the end of century.
So what does that mean? Well, basically a never-ending summer with the number of days with a temperature above 95 degrees going from the current 135 to 179 by 2100 and, well, we should probably start looking for a new place at the beach.
And the heat wouldn’t just take its toll on living conditions. Local agriculture and the water supply would be affected, the risk of fires in the local mountains would increase greatly, and tourists are likely to stay the hell away from the oven-like conditions with the report stating that the lack of nice days constituting “a big blow to the local economy.”
You can check out the entire report here and the section on the Inland Desert’s here.
