Continued heat puts more physiological strain on the body, especially for elders, children and pregnant women, according to Kristie Ebi, a professor at the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the University of Washington.Įven near the coast, California’s celebrated fog layer is nowhere to be found. Nighttime heat is dangerous because it reduces our ability to cool down from the day’s heat. In general, minimum temperatures are rising faster over time than maximum temperatures, according to a study published by the Royal Meteorological Society. On average, nights are warming faster than days across most of the United States, according to the 2018 National Climate Assessment Report. It’s part of a larger global problem linked to climate change, say scientists. “At certain elevations, there’s almost no temperature recovery overnight.” “During this heat wave, the middle elevation regions have been extraordinary at night,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist with the UC Los Angeles Institute of the Environment and Sustainability. At the crest of the Santa Cruz Mountains, 2,400 feet above sea level, Denise Maggioncalda suffered through nighttime temperatures that never dropped below 93 degrees. In the Palo Alto Hills, 1,700 feet in elevation, “I couldn’t sleep, so I left,” said Katherine Greene. Then, “descending the hill, you could feel the instant temperature change at around 200-feet elevation, as the temp dropped around 20 degrees,” he said. Hiking in the Marin Headlands on Tuesday morning, Travis Gohr’s Garmin thermometer reported 108 degrees. Residents report an “inversion,” where temperatures rise, not fall, with elevation gain. That includes the upper hills in the San Francisco Bay Area and the coastal mountains, as well as the lower parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills. Meteorologists point to a phenomenon called a “thermal belt,” which creates high nighttime temperatures within a narrow altitude that ranges from 1,000 to 3,000 feet. “When you’re starting the next day a couple of degrees warmer than the previous day,” Null said, you’re getting a head start on the heat. High overnight temperatures contribute to daytime misery, said meteorologist Jan Null of Golden Gate Weather Forecasting and an adjunct professor in the Department of Meteorology and Climate Science at San Jose State University.
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