Nearly everyone in the U.S. experienced hotter temperatures driven by human-caused climate change this summer, per a new Climate Central analysis.
By the numbers: 326 million people — that's 97% of the U.S. population — experienced at least one summer day with temperatures notably influenced by human-caused climate change in 2023, per Climate Central, a climate research and communications nonprofit.
Zoom in: In 45 of the 244 U.S. cities the group analyzed, at least half of all summer days had temperatures made at least twice as likely by climate change.
The three U.S. cities with the most hot summer days driven by climate change: San Juan, Puerto Rico (90 days); Victoria, Texas (80 days), and Lafayette, Louisiana (74 days).
The big picture: This is a U.S.-focused version of a similar global analysis Climate Central published last week, which found that nearly half the world's population experienced temperatures made more likely by global warming this summer.
Meanwhile, Earth just experienced what was likely its hottest summer on record, with a global average surface temperature about 0.65°C (1.17°F) above the 1991-2020 average for June through August.
How it works: Climate Central's analysis is based on the group's Climate Shift Index (CSI), which compares observed or forecast temperatures with simulations of the same weather conditions minus excess atmospheric greenhouse gases.
The idea is to compare real-world conditions with what might have been the case absent human-caused climate change.
A CSI of 3, for example, means human-caused climate change made a given daily average temperature three times more likely.
Of note: While the analysis itself wasn't peer-reviewed, the methodology has been.
"It's similar to the strategy for weather forecasts — your weather forecast has not been peer reviewed, but the models underlying it have been," Andrew Pershing, Climate Central's vice president for science, said in a media call about last week's global data, Axios Generate's Andrew Freedman reports.
The bottom line: Rapid attribution analyses like this one drive home a key point: Climate change is having a significant present-day impact on millions across the country and the planet.