It’s Not Your Imagination, the Middle of a City Is Hotter Than Anywhere Else

It’s called the “urban heat island effect.”

This story was originally published by Grist and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

The year is 2018. Cities are hot. Really, really hot. Thanks to something called the “urban heat island effect,” cities like Los Angeles and New York are literally the hottest places to live—and climate change is only warming things up more.

An epic heat wave wreaked havoc across LA this past week, leaving more than 26,000 residents without power after temperatures spiked to 109 degrees downtown. The good news is that cities are taking action to stem the serious public health threats that come along with extreme heat.

More Mother Jones reporting on Climate Desk

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

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