Younger generations of Utah children are feeling more days of extreme heat.
A Salt Lake City kid born in 2005 lived through 450 days of extreme heat caused by climate change by the time they turned 18, according to a new analysis from research group Climate Central. That’s three times as many days as a kid born in 1975.
An interactive tool that accompanies the report shows that Gen Z Utahns are growing up with hundreds more extremely hot days — when the high temperature reaches at least 91 degrees — than their Millennial or Gen X counterparts did.
That changes the experience of growing up in Utah, said Kristina Dahl, Climate Central’s vice president of science.
“If you cast your memory back and think about being a kid, imagine just almost double the number of days where your parents had to say, ‘You have to stop running around outside,’” she said. “All of those sorts of things really do add up to a very different childhood.”
As hot weather becomes more frequent and intense, it means kids have fewer days when it’s safe to play in the yard for an extended time. It can also disrupt learning in school as heat lingers into the fall, especially for buildings without air conditioning.
While cities nationwide see similar trends, Dahl said Salt Lake City is one of the fastest-warming cities in the U.S. over the past five decades. Statistics from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration show the city’s average summertime temperature in the past decade was nearly 5.5 degrees warmer than in the 1970s.
“For today's kids, it may be that this frequency of extreme heat is their normal,” Dahl said. “But I think it's important to step back from that and say, ‘How did we get to this normal? And what do we want normal to look like 50 years from now?’”
For Dahl, this trend highlights the urgency to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change while there’s still time. A federal climate projection from 2023 said the number of Utah days with extreme heat in 2050 could be more than double the state’s historical average from 1976 to 2005.
It also creates serious health risks for growing up in a warming Utah, said Shana Godfred-Cato, a pediatrician at Primary Children’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.
“We know that children are at increased risk of complications and adverse effects from extreme heat,” she said. “So, for them to be experiencing a significant number of hotter days than when I was a child is alarming.”
Heat is the deadliest weather phenomenon in the U.S., killing an average of 238 people annually over the past three decades. In early September, for example, a toddler died after being left in a hot car outside his family’s home in southwest Utah.
Young children are especially vulnerable, Godfred-Cato said, because they have a hard time regulating their body temperature and they don’t sweat like adults do. So, every additional day of hot weather is an extra day when children are at increased risk. And it affects some Utah families more than others, such as those who live near urban heat islands or don’t have home air conditioning.
“Chronic heat is a problem when kids aren't able to cool down,” Godfred-Cato said. “If it stays hot at night and their bodies aren't able to recover, then over time, their ability to adapt to the heat goes down, which increases their risk in terms of chronic issues.”
Overnight lows in Salt Lake City have warmed even more than daytime highs in recent decades. Another report from Climate Central shows the city’s nighttime temperatures rose by 8.2 degrees between 1970 and 2024.
Heat’s impacts on a child’s health spread beyond the immediate risks, too. Hotter temperatures from climate change have been linked to increases in wildfires. The smoke those produce can lead to respiratory health problems and trigger asthma attacks.
Research from the University of Utah also indicates that enduring multiple days of high temperatures can have lasting mental health impacts. As kids get frustrated by the heat, Godfred-Cato said, some can begin to feel climate anxiety about what the future might hold, too.
For parents wanting to protect their children in a warmer Utah, she suggested a few ways to mitigate the risks.
For families who don’t have air conditioning, it’s a good idea to spend time in libraries, recreation centers — which kids can access for free in Salt Lake County — and other cooling areas. Be sure to keep children hydrated, which can be tough since kids don’t always remember to drink water on their own while they’re playing. And plan for extra rest time in the shade after being out in the sun.
