When Will the Southwest Become Unlivable?
theatlantic.com
theatlantic.com
* Santa Fe New Mexico, 102
* Flagstaff Arizona, 99
whereas
* NYC Central Park, New York, 106
“New York and the East generally gasped in the highest temperatures in recorded weather history here yesterday as searing blasts of heat, borne out of the parched drought areas of the Middle West, converted city, town and country into one vast oven.
The official high reading in New York City of 102.3 was taken at 2:50 P. M., 415 feet above the sun- baked pavements and melting asphalt roadways, by Weather Bureau officials on the roof of the Whitehall Building and tempered by bay breezes.
But it did not tell the true story. The instrument for measuring the sun’s intensity set up in the Central Park Observatory by David R. Morris, meteorologist, gave a reading of 145 degrees at 12:40 P, M., while the reading in the shade was 106 degrees at 5 P. M.
115 in Times Square
In Times Square, where the western wind carried the heat against the faces of pedestrians, there were unofficial readings of 115 degrees, due to heat reflection from the sidewalks. In the canyons of the financial district men and women. reported the heat waves visible”. (NYT, July 9, 1936)
* Livermore California, 115 (September 3, 1950). Last year’s hot spell was officially only 113.
That would make the mid-Atlantic states and the Bay Area already unlivable. Do they mean “low desert”? Understandable that a magazine named “The Atlantic” couldn’t make that distinction. No mention of heat index either. NYC media…
(Yes, at some point, the existing urban areas will probably start seeing their populations collapse, as things hit the "leave or die" line for the bottom $Significant_And_Growing percent of their residents. TBD if rural areas will start to see "this area is inhabited only during the following months____" habitation patterns.)