Texas is only getting hotter
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This summer was the hottest on record in Houston, and it's only going to get worse.
Driving the news: Harris County is forecasted to have 29 more days that feel like 100 degrees or more in coming decades, per an analysis by the First Street Foundation.
Why it matters: In the next three decades, there will be an emergence of an "extreme heat belt" from Texas to Illinois due to anticipated warming.
- Not to mention, it already feels like we're melting.
Details: Harris County is forecast to have 69 days that feel like 100 degrees or more in 2023 — and 98 such days in 2053.
Threat level: Right now more than 8 million Americans live with extreme heat, which is defined as having a maximum heat index of greater than 125°F, the First Street Foundation's peer-reviewed heat model shows.
- That number is expected to balloon to 107 million people in the next 30 years.
Between the lines: The term "climate change" appears only once in the new 183-page state water plan published by the Texas Water Development Board, the chief state water planning agency — and then only in a journal article title in the reference section.
- "Global warming" doesn't appear at all.
The bottom line: Time to start investing in better sunscreen.