Seattle classrooms need more cooling during back-to-school season now compared with past decades, a new Climate Central analysis finds.

Why it matters: A comfortable and healthy environment in schools for kids, who are among the most vulnerable to heat-related illness, is key to educational success, says the nonprofit climate research group.

• But maintaining a comfortable environment is harder with a warming climate and deferred costly maintenance at aging schools.

Driving the news: The Climate Central report finds that cooling demand between late July and early September increased in 95% of nearly 250 U.S. locations between 1970 and 2023.

• The nonprofit climate research group's analysis is based on a metric called "cooling degree days" (CDD), which measures the difference between a location's daily average outdoor temperature and 65° — "considered the ideal indoor temperature," per the report.
• "For example, a day with an average temperature of 90°F has 25 CDD (90°- 65°)."

Context: Heat waves in Seattle are getting hotter and lasting longer, with the average length of heat waves increasing 2.1 days between 1961 and 2023, according to the EPA.

• That's longer than the national average of 1.4 days, per the data.

Threat level: Many schools in Washington start in early September, when heat waves can still strike.

What they did: To get annual demand, CDD was added for every day in the seven-week period when students typically return to school.

By the numbers: Seattle saw a 152% increase in back-to-school cooling days between 1970 and 2023.

• Reno, Nevada (+320%); Eureka, California (+300%); and San Francisco (+240%) saw the biggest percentage increases.

The big picture: Back-to-school cooling demand was around 34% higher nationwide over the last decade largely due to human-caused climate change, Climate Central estimates.

• That's based on the group's Climate Shift Index, which seeks to measure how climate change has affected daily temperatures.

What's next: Like other buildings, schools must adapt to a changing climate — and that can mean costly upgrades.

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People born in Washington live longer than those born in the majority of other states, a new report finds.

By the numbers: The average life expectancy for Washingtonians is 78.2 years, compared to the national average of 76.4 years, according to a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention analysis based on mortality statistics and Census and Medicare data.

• It's 75.8 years for males and 80.8 for females.
• Hawai'i had the longest life expectancy at 79.9 years and Mississippi had the shortest at 70.9 years.

Between the lines: Women are expected to live longer than men across the country, with Utah having the smallest gender gap at 3.9 years.

The big picture: Life expectancy nationwide fell by 0.6 years between 2020 and 2021 — largely due to the COVID-19 pandemic and drug overdoses, per the report.

• But with the pandemic behind us, preliminary data suggests these numbers will likely improve.

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🏈 The Seahawks ended preseason on a high note, beating the Cleveland Browns 37-33 at Lumen Field on Saturday, with the final roster cuts looming and the season opener in Seattl on Sept. 8 against the Broncos in California. (Field Gulls)

🔒 Evergreen Goodwill is closing two Seattle locations — in South Lake Union and the University District — on Sept. 22 following increasing incidents of theft, vandalism and threats of violence against employees. (Seattle Times)

King County prosecutors on Friday charged 48-year-old Jahmed Kamal Haynes with first-degree homicide and animal cruelty in connection with the death of an 80-year-old dog walker during a carjacking last week. (KOMO)

Editor's note: The Seahawks item has been corrected to say the season opener will be against the Broncos in Seattle (not the Chargers in California).

The federal government plans to relaunch its free COVID-19 home testing program at the end of September after suspending the program in March.

Why it matters: COVID infections are increasing in 27 states, CDC data shows.

State of play: The government said it will offer tests "at the end of September" but did not include an exact date.

The big picture: Households can order four free COVID-19 tests at COVIDTests.gov when the program resumes, per a government website.

Zoom in: Nearly one-third of Americans see COVID as a threat to their health, but many believe the virus is no worse than seasonal flu, the latest Axios-Ipsos American Health Index found.

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