Buzz
While most of us are aware that the planet is heating up, it's difficult to truly grasp what that future will feel like. Vox recently sought to make these alarming statistics more tangible by illustrating how the winters and summers of 1,000 cities across the U.S. will evolve over the next three decades.
The interactive infographic allows you to input the name of the city closest to you, showing how the average summer highs and winter lows will shift between 2000 and 2050. For example, New York City saw a summer high of 83.1° F in 2000, but by 2050, that will climb to 87.9°F. The city's winter temperatures will also rise, from a low of 28.5°F in 2000 to 32.6°F in 2050.
Though these changes may seem modest, they only represent averages, and fail to capture the bigger picture. Expect more heat waves, other extreme weather events, and drastic transitions from rainfall to drought. These shifts will vary by city—northern regions are warming faster than their southern counterparts—but, in general, many cities will begin to experience the climate of today’s southern cities.
The Vox visualization allows you to explore projections on how populations and temperatures will shift in various cities, highlighting those that are expected to warm the most and least over the next three decades. (Oakland seems to be in good shape, but Fargo might not be the best choice.) You can also track how each city’s temperature and precipitation forecasts will evolve month by month.
It’s a grim reality. Beyond altering the weather, climate change will affect agriculture, animal populations, and natural landscapes. It will also change which world heritage sites remain accessible, which wines you’ll be able to enjoy, which trees you’ll be able to plant in your garden, and much more.
Discover how your hometown could transform on Vox.
