October is traditionally associated with cool autumn breezes, but a heat wave fueled by climate change in the West is defying that expectation by continuing to shatter temperature records. According to a recent post by the National Weather Service, a record high temperature of 108 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in Phoenix, Ariz. on Wednesday, breaking a 28-year record for the city.
Similarly temperatures in Yuma, Arizona broke a 28-year record, reaching 112 degrees Fahrenheit, while more than 50 other heat records were broken throughout the American Southwest on that same Wednesday. Overall at least 125 locations from the Rocky Mountains to the West Coast have broken temperature records since the start of the month.
The heat has persisted through the week, with the National Weather Service issuing an excessive heat warning for much of California, Arizona and Nevada.
“Climate change is causing the length of the heat season to increase and is making… fall heat waves like this more frequent,” Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told CNN. “If we continue to warm the plant by burning fossil fuels, late-season heat waves like this will become much more common.”
Dahl added that she is particularly concerned about wildfires: "Dry heat like this essentially sucks moisture out of plants and turns them into dry tinder for a wildfire should a spark ignite."
Dahl's observation has been echoed by other scientists. Dr. Gavin A. Schmidt, the director of Nasa's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, told Salon in April that "the long term changes in climate are already having effects on the probabilities of some extreme events (heat waves, intense rainfall, soil moisture drought, etc.)"
