California Heat Wave August 2020
An intense, prolonged, and dangerous heat wave set records across California, including 130°F in Death Valley on August 16, potentially the hottest recorded temperature in world history. Many aspects of the heat wave, including the extreme high temperatures, number of consecutive days with temperatures over 100°F, high overnight lows, and high humidity, align with the impacts of climate change. Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, says “for most of California, climate change has caused rare heat waves to be from 3 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer.”
The heat wave is having wide-ranging impacts on human health, wildfires, and electricity demand, including the development of a rare fire tornado and the first rolling blackouts since 2001. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain predicts, “This event will probably end up being one of the most significant widespread California extreme heat events in the past decade, if not longer.”