Summer temperatures are sticking around for longer in cities across the U.S., according to a new published on Wednesday, forcing Americans to endure intense heat for more than week longer on average than they used to.
A few h cities are among those to see the most dramatic change.
The Climate Central analysis, which compares temperature data from 1970 to 2024 across 247 major U.S. cities, found that summer-like temperatures stretch later into the fall in a vast majority — 92% — of the cities surveyed.
Among the 227 cities where summers are getting longer, hot weather drags on for an average of 10 days later now compared to the early 1970s. In Wheeling, West Virginia, the most dramatic case, summer is nearly two months longer.
While cities in Florida and Texas have largely seen the most intense changes over the last five decades, Baton Rouge now gets 21 extra days of summer temperatures, putting it among the top 15 of all 247 cities analyzed.
Other h cities saw increases in summer days, too. Lafayette is 27th on the list, with summers that now stretch for about 17 extra days, according to the study. Summers in Shreveport are 16 days longer, and Lake Charles sees 15 extra hot days a year.
New Orleans is close to the national average, according to the study, with 11 extra days of hot weather each year.
Monroe and Alexandria, which endure an extra week or less of summer, took up the rear for h.
Climate Central, a nonprofit that employs scientists to study climate change and its impact on people's lives, blames heat-trapping pollution from burning coal, oil and gas for the increase in the nation's hot days and nights over the last 55 years.
h State Climatologist Jay Grymes said increased urbanization has likely played a larger role. h cities have seen significant expansion since the 1970s, he said, not necessarily in population but in physical growth. That means more buildings, more roads, more parking lots.
Research suggests that urban areas with heat-absorbing surfaces like dark pavement and a lack of vegetation are significantly hotter than surrounding rural areas.
“Regionally, it has been getting warmer over the last 50 years," Grymes said. "And I’m not trying to counter what those folks are saying, but when you focus on urban sites, you’re going to raise the element of warming simply because of urban development.”
Grymes pointed to the New Orleans airport, where he said temperature readings have dramatically increased over the years as highways, parking lots and new buildings there have overtaken marshland.
But regardless of the reasons, Grymes said: "Yes, the cities are warmer. There's no argument there."
He said that although a few extra days of summer isn't exactly catastrophic, it does add up.
And in h, where over the last five years, those consequences could prove fatal for those who work outdoors or live without cooling systems.
