Summer nights in Salt Lake City are getting warmer
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You're not imagining it: Your summer evening porch hangs are getting hotter.
Why it matters: Higher overnight temperatures can have health consequences for vulnerable groups and boost air conditioning use.
- That, in turn, can strain electrical grids and increase energy demand, fueling a vicious cycle with more greenhouse gas emissions.
Driving the news: Salt Lake City is among the U.S. locations that have seen the largest increases in summer nighttime temperatures between 1970 and 2024, according to a new report from Climate Central.
By the numbers: 96% of 241 locations analyzed in the report saw a rise in evening temperatures, by 3.1 degrees on average.
- Salt Lake City's temperatures on average rose by 8.2 degrees.
The latest: Rocky Mountain Power issued an advisory Wednesday, urging customers to conserve energy ahead of triple-digit temperatures hitting the valley, particularly during high-demand hours from 3 to 8pm.
Zoom out: The higher temperatures in the evening are happening across much of the U.S. — especially in Nevada and other parts of the Southwest.
- Reno, Nevada (17.7 degrees), Las Vegas (10) and El Paso, Texas (8.9) saw the biggest increases.
Between the lines: Hundreds of U.S. cities are experiencing more frequent warmer-than-average summer nights "with a strong climate change fingerprint," Climate Central says.
- That's based on the group's Climate Shift Index — a method of measuring climate change's impact on local daily temperatures — and the 1991-2020 climate normals.
The bottom line: It isn't just daytime highs getting warmer in much of the U.S. but evening lows, too.