{"id":37027,"date":"2013-07-21T06:03:06","date_gmt":"2013-07-21T10:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetsave.com\/?p=37027"},"modified":"2013-07-21T06:03:06","modified_gmt":"2013-07-21T10:03:06","slug":"nighttime-heat-waves-in-pacific-northwest-have-quadrupled-in-frequency-over-the-past-33-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetsave.com\/articles\/nighttime-heat-waves-in-pacific-northwest-have-quadrupled-in-frequency-over-the-past-33-years\/","title":{"rendered":"Nighttime Heat Waves In Pacific Northwest Have Quadrupled In Frequency Over The Past 33 Years"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nighttime heat waves in the Pacific Northwest have quadrupled in frequency over the past 33 years, according to new research from the University of Washington. Specifically — the region of Washington state west of the Cascades experienced only three nighttime heat waves during the years of 1901-1980, but 12 nighttime heat waves during the years since 1980.<\/p>\n

\""Nighttime<\/a>
“Nighttime heat waves of three days or more between 1901 and 2009. The colors represent different ways of processing the historical readings.”
Image Credit: K. Bumbaco \/ UW<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To clarify — a nighttime heat wave is when the daily low is in the top 1% of the temperatures on record — so, for example, in Seattle that means a low above 61.5 F that lasts for at least three nights in a row is a nighttime heat wave.<\/p>\n

“In general, minimum daily temperatures have been warming faster than maximum temperatures, so we’re not surprised to see a trend in the minimum events,” stated corresponding author Karin Bumbaco, a research scientist at the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean. “Still, we were surprised to see this significant increase in the frequency of nighttime heat waves.”<\/p>\n

The researchers began this new work “after fielding questions during the July 2009 heat wave, which broke temperature records and led to a local run on fans and air conditioners. People wanted to know how that event compared with others in the history books.”<\/p>\n