Will heat waves in Whatcom County continue to get worse? Climate change may be to blame
While it doesn’t compare to other parts of the country, Whatcom County has seen high temperatures of around 85 degrees the last few weeks, which is uncomfortably hot for these parts.
But does this constitute a heat wave?
Not when compared to Arizona, which has seen triple-digit temperatures for 62 days so far this year, including most of the month of July.
But this is the Pacific Northwest, where a heat wave is defined by experts as a period of abnormally hot temperatures lasting more than two or more days.
The real threat poised by heat waves in Whatcom County, though, does not come with the rise in daytime temperatures, but rather the temperatures at night. Washington State Climatologist Nick Bond said in an interview that the minimum temperature has been increasing at a higher rate than the maximum. While the days get hotter, so do the nights, which gives the area less time to cool down.
“The rise in summer temperatures in the region is considerably more pronounced in the nighttime or minimum temperatures, compared to the maximum temperatures. So we are experiencing a greater increase in the frequency of the “hot night” type heat waves in the region,” Bond said.
If the heat continues at night, the human body faces extra stress as the heart pumps harder to regulate body temperature, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
“We are seeing a lot more of those (minimum temperature heatwaves) in the last decade or two, and not that many farther back in the records,” Bond said.
Climate change is making heat waves worse across the United States, both in intensity and frequency. In the 1960s, there was an average of two heat waves a year, now it is around six, according to the EPA.
This is not just a national problem, but a global one. In Sardinia, Italy, temperatures reached above 117 degrees Fahrenheit this year, a record high. In Sicily, a record temperature of 119.8 degrees was hit two years ago in 2021.
The Southwestern United States, Mexico, Southern Europe and China all saw extreme heat waves in July 2023, according to a recent study published on World Weather Attribution. The study showed that heatwaves are among the deadliest natural hazards.
Heat waves will continue to get worse across the planet, the study said.
In 2021, a Bellingham resident was killed during a record heat wave across Washington.
Some ways to beat the heat
To combat this increase in heat, besides heading to the local swimming hole, many people are turning to air conditioning. Only about 53% of people have air conditioning in Washington state, the second-lowest amount of air conditioning units in the U.S. behind Alaska, according to the Energy Information Administration.
The sales of air conditioners and heat pumps has increased dramatically over the last few years, said Jacob Marr, vice president of Bellingham’s Marr’s Heating and Air Conditioning.
“We have seen, in the last probably five years, the amount of air conditioners going in, it is hitting record highs every year,” Marr said.
This trend in air conditioner and heat pump sales is backed up by Colin Matei with Clean Air Heating and Cooling, who told The Herald people have been increasingly installing air conditioners in their homes over the last few years.
And portable air conditioners and air evaporators are an option for people who are not ready to invest in a whole-house system.
The heat is not just harmful to humans but also to trees, especially when they are small seedlings, Micheal Feerer executive director of the Whatcom Million Trees Project told The Herald in an interview.
All native trees in the region react poorly to extreme heat, as their root systems can dry out during the summer, Feerer said.
The forecast for Bellingham calls for high temperatures to be in the 70s most days in August, with a few only reaching to 68, according to weather25.com.
This story was originally published August 2, 2023 at 1:57 PM.
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