People in urban heat islands - areas with few trees and lots of asphalt and concrete that can absorb and radiate heat - saw temperatures as much as 14 F (7.8 C) higher than that.Įxtreme heat disasters like this are becoming increasingly common in regions where high heat used to be rare. Imagine having no way to cool your home as temperatures spiked to 108 degrees Fahrenheit (43 Celsius) and 120 F (49 C) in some places. In Spokane, nearly one-quarter of survey respondents didn’t have in-home air conditioning, and among those who did, 1 in 5 faced significant, often financial, barriers to using it. The heat dome that descended upon the Pacific Northwest in late June 2021 met a population radically unprepared for it.Īlmost two-thirds of households earning US$50,000 or less and 70 percent of rented houses in Washington’s King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties had no air conditioning.
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