Culture

NASA Scientist Shows Summers Really Are Getting Hotter

This isn’t your grandparent’s climate.

By Diana Crandall
July 28, 2017 9:37 am EDT
Wooden boat on drought land with sunrise.
Wooden boat on drought land with sunrise. (Getty)

If it’s not already, turn on your air conditioning.

A retired NASA climate scientist and professor at Columbia University created a bell curve that shows how summer temperatures have shifted from sweaty to scorching over the last several decades, according to the New York Times. Between 1951 and 1980, about a third of summers in the Northern Hemisphere were a normal range, while one third was cold, and the other was hot.

Fast-forward to 2005-2015, where two-thirds of summers landed in the hot category, and 15 percent were grouped into a new category: extremely hot. That means that summer temperatures have steadily climbed over the last couple of decades, and we reportedly can expect that trend to continue.

Diana Crandall

Diana Crandall

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