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A regional public media collaboration serving the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

Climate Change Map Shows How Warm Your City Will Get

Under a three degree global temperature rise, the city of Boise is expected to feel more like Oakdale, California in summer.
Under a three degree global temperature rise, the city of Boise is expected to feel more like Oakdale, California in summer.

A new study includes an interactive map that shows how your home will be affected by climate change in the next 50 years.No surprise —Idaho and the Mountain West will get hotter.

 

An increase of three degrees celsius is what we’re on track for if we don’t reduce emissions.  That doesn’t sound like much but ..."A three degree C increase in temperature globally can mean a whole lot of climate change for different places," says Matt Fitzpatrick, an environmental scientist with the University of  Maryland who co-authored the study. He wanted to make “three degrees celsius” tangible. So you can plug in your city to the map, and see what you can expect in 2080. 

"Places in the west are moving south and to the southwest," says Fitzpatrick. "So warmer, drier and different seasonal distributions of precipitation." 

But that’s under the “high emissions” scenario, or a three-degree increase. 

The map also offers the option to click on what happens if we start reducing emissions now - the outlook for that is better.

Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter  @amandapeacher .

Copyright 2019 Boise State Public Radio

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho,  KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio News. To see more, visit Boise State Public Radio News.

Amanda Peacher is an Arthur F. Burns fellow reporting and producing in Berlin in 2013. Amanda is from Portland, Oregon, where she works as the public insight journalist for Oregon Public Broadcasting. She produces radio and online stories, data visualizations, multimedia projects, and facilitates community engagement opportunities for OPB's newsroom.
Amanda Peacher
Amanda Peacher works for the Mountain West News Bureau out of Boise State Public Radio. She's an Idaho native who returned home after a decade of living and reporting in Oregon. She's an award-winning reporter with a background in community engagement and investigative journalism.
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