Hot Stuff
This is how much hotter Houston and four Texas cities could get by 2100
Not only do Texans have to worry about flooding, we have to fret about it getting hotter, too.
Many of us won’t be around then, but it’s still scary to think that by 2100 — 83 years from now — the temperature in Houston and four Texas cities is expected to sizzle nearly 100 days a year.
A new ranking by Austin-based SpareFoot, which operates an online self-storage platform, puts San Antonio at No. 2 among U.S. cities (and No. 1 among Texas cities) projected to swelter under even more extreme heat. San Antonio is predicted to suffer 96 days of 100-degree weather by 2100, representing an 84-day rise from today.
“This may be good news for the paleta vendors, but not so good for everyone else,” SpareFoot notes.
SpareFoot’s ranking features the 15 big U.S. cities that witnessed the largest population increases from 2015 to 2016. SpareFoot further sorted those cities by two other factors: the Sperling Heat Index and the projected increase in extremely hot days between now and 2100. The final list combines rankings for population gains, the heat index, and the predicted increase in extremely hot days.
San Antonio is joined on the hotter-than-heck ranking by every other major city in Texas: Dallas comes in at No. 3, Fort Worth at No. 4, Austin at No. 5, and Houston at No. 6. While Houston is predicted to suffer an increase of 65 "extremely hot" days a year by 2100, it will see the smallest increase of any of the other Texas cities on the list.
Holding the top spot is Phoenix.
SpareFoot says that as the urban population of the U.S. continues to climb, so too will the mercury in big cities.
“Summers around the world are already warmer than they used to be, and they’re going to get dramatically hotter by century’s end if carbon pollution continues to rise. The problem will be felt most acutely in cities, particularly San Antonio,” SpareFoot says.