Why this summer's SoCal heat waves feel so bad: Hotter nights, broiling beaches

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Set us as preferred On paper, Southern California’s summer heat has been “pretty typical,” in the words of Mike Wofford, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.So why do so many people swear this summer has felt so unusually oppressive?Experts point to several factors to explain the summer discomfort.

Nighttime temperatures remain stubbornly high.And it’s been broiling along the coast, which typically offers a cooler respite from the heat.“It’s been an extraordinarily, arguably record-breakingly, warm summer at night,” said climate scientist Daniel Swain, “but not so much in terms of the hottest daytime temperatures, which is what everybody always talks about in terms of how hot it’s been.”Don’t expect any relief this week.Southern California is staring down its hottest week of the year yet, with temperatures expected to rival daily records in downtown Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Monica and Burbank, according to the National Weather Service.The latest heat wave continues what’s proving to be a sweltering summer globally as temperatures rise because of climate change, with last month tying 2024 as the warmest July since record-keeping began in 1850, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Experts said they are not surprised the hot conditions are taking a toll.Hotter nights can prolong the stress that heat places on the human body by depriving people of a chance to recover, increasing the risk of heat-related illness.

Such conditions also put more strain on animals, plants and infrastructure.Many parts of the U.S.are seeing overnight temperatures warming faster than daytime maximum temperatures, which appears to have become a hallmark of climate change in some regions, said Swain, an associate researcher at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resource...