And, experts say, those least likely to have air conditioning are the people who will endure the worst heat - historically underserved communities of color, the elderly, the houseless and low-income residents living in so-called urban heat islands. Seattle and Portland rank first and third, respectively, among cities with the highest proportion of households without air conditioning, according to a US Census Bureau survey of 25 major metropolitan areas. Climate change is also going to make record-breaking heat waves more frequent in the future - something researchers and policy experts say the Pacific Northwest is not prepared for. This is clearly evidence that our climate is changing.”Įxtreme heat is one of the most pernicious consequences of human-caused climate change, killing more people each year on average than any other weather-related event. “It’s scary seeing what the world is going to look like. ![]() “I’m worried about how is going to handle this,” Lindell-Smith told CNN. The National Weather Service in Spokane warned Friday it will be “one of the most extreme and prolonged heat waves” in Northwest history. Now the 15-year-old is about to experience yet another record-breaking weather event, one that not even her mother has experienced in her lifetime.īy late weekend, vast swaths of Washington and Oregon will roast in temperatures 20 to 30 degrees above what’s normal for this time of year. The orange sky over Washington and Oregon was filled with embers as wildfires raged, leading to some of the region’s most prolonged and dangerous air quality crisis.Īs smoke poured into their Seattle home that night, the teen helped her mother fill every crack and crevice with towels and sheets - whatever they could find - to keep it out. It was only last year when Hannah Lindell-Smith woke up in the middle of the night with the taste of smoke in her mouth.
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