A look at hot weather trends in Southern California and what prediction models tell us.
A new tool created by Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of Colorado Boulder and the Geospatial Innovation Facility at the University of California Berkeley explores the projected changes in annual average maximum temperature, minimum temperature and precipitation.You can find it at cal-adapt.org/tool/annual-averages.
You can click on the image below to go to the site. Use the map on the right to locate the area you would like to see and then click confirm to get the projection.
Here are charts for select areas:
This year, as it does every decade, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updated what the “normal” temperatures and precipitation are for thousands of locations around the country. The new normals are based on data from 1991 to 2020, and replace normals based on the weather from 1981 to 2010. A Southern California News Group analysis of 68 stations across Southern California shows that temperatures are up almost everywhere and there are more 100-degree days each year than there used to be.
This map shows how the annual average temperature — which takes into account the highs and lows on every day of the year — has changed from the 1981-2010 period to the 1991-2020 period. The darkest red dots are the stations whose temperatures have risen the most.
Southern California temperatures change by month:
Sources: NOAA’s National Center for Environmental Information, SCNG research, National Weather Service
Former SCNG data journalist Nikie Johnson contributed to this report
