Climate Change: Temps Have Soared In St. Louis Over Last 50 years

ST. LOUIS, MO — Climate change is happening, whether the Trump administration and other global warming deniers want you to know it or not. And while many charts, graphs, infographics and scholarly articles illustrate thatgrim reality, perhaps nothing hits quite as close to home as a new tool from The New York Times that allows you to see how much warmer your hometown has gotten over the last few decades. The Times article notes that most people — including residents in St. Louis — can expect to see more 90-plus degree days now compared to the year they were born.

A 30-year-old St. Louisan could reasonably expect about 37 “very hot days,” that is days hotter than 90 degrees, in 1988 — the year they were born. Today, that number is 44 days, an almost 20 percent increase. By the time that same person is 80 years old, climate projections say they could see around 73 days that hot every year (the likely range is between 52 and 98 days).

And it gets worse the farther back you go.

A 50-year-old adult could’ve reasonably expected to see just 31 days of 90-plus degree scorchers in 1968. But your children and grandchildren will have to invest in quality air conditioning, with models predicting there could be anywhere between 56 and 104 days of extreme heat by the year 2089. That's almost a third of the year, at the upper end of the range.

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The Times dataset stretches back to 1960. The authors noted that:

The St. Louis area is likely to feel this extra heat even if countries take action to lower their emissions by the end of the century, according to an analysis conducted for The New York Times by the Climate Impact Lab, a group of climate scientists, economists and data analysts from the Rhodium Group, the University of Chicago, Rutgers University and the University of California, Berkeley.

The predicted future temperatures could be even hotter if countries continue to emit emissions at historically high rates. The future projection assumes countries will reduce greenhouse gas emissions to those outlined in the Paris Agreement — an agreement the Trump administration withdrew from last year.

The Times article highlighted extreme examples in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. These countries could eventually expect to see extreme temperature days for most of the year. Even moderate places, such as Madrid, Spain, could expect to see the number of 90-degree days double or even triple by the end of the century.

The article comes as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Donald Trump and former Administrator Scott Pruitt have sought to quell concerns about the dangers of climate change. The EPA’s own website removed its entry on climate change. Curious visitors are met with a bold message that says the page is “being updated.”

“Thank you for your interest in this topic. We are currently updating our website to reflect EPA's priorities under the leadership of President Trump and Administrator Pruitt,” the site reads.

Visitors are then pointed to an “archived version” of the page that contains historical material. It includes basic information on climate change, including what’s behind it — human activity — and how to reduce carbon pollution. It even includes a snapshot of the impacts on each state.
“As our climate changes, every state will become warmer,” the archived site reads, adding that the potential effects will vary from state to state. “Increased rainfall intensity will cause more flooding in some states, while increasingly severe droughts may threaten water supplies in other states. Farms and forests will be less productive in some states, but warmer temperatures may extend growing seasons in others.”

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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