This story is part of the WHYY News Climate Desk, bringing you news and solutions for our changing region.
From the Poconos to the Jersey Shore to the mouth of the Delaware Bay, what do you want to know about climate change? What would you like us to cover? Get in touch.
One sweltering day in late July, 84-year-old Blanca Maldonado stretched out on a couch in her North Philadelphia rowhome beneath a ceiling fan and woke up two hours later, unsure whether she’d fallen asleep or passed out from the heat.
“I was soaking wet and I didn’t even know what time it was,” said the recent retiree.
Temperatures that day in Philadelphia neared triple digits, 11 degrees hotter than normal for that time of year — an extreme made twice as likely by climate change, according to Climate Central’s CSI forensics tool. “Because I lost track of the time, that’s why I think maybe I did pass out.”
Maldonado has owned the house in the Kensington section of the city for more than three decades, and although she used to have an air conditioning unit in her kitchen window, it broke and she hasn’t replaced it.
“I like to save my pennies,” she said.
Blanca Maldonado, 84, sits in her favorite chair at her home in Philadelphia’s Fairhill neighborhood. She says this summer has been the worst for heat, but she’s handling the situation. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
A month earlier, in June, the city’s Department of Public Health reported that five people died from heat exposure, when it declared a three-day “heat health emergency” beginning Sunday, June 22. Average round-the-clock temperatures of 88 degrees during that period were much higher than normal. That extreme heat condition had been made four times more likely by climate change, the forensics tool shows.
“In the years I’ve been living here, this year has been the worst. I never experienced heat like this before,” said Maldonado. “But I was younger.”
Climate change is exacerbating the heat risks seniors face. The Philadelphia region is experiencing hotter temperatures, longer summers, and an increase in extreme heat days in our region. Heat waves are becoming more intense, more common and lasting longer. Last year was the hottest year on record, according to NOAA, which also reports the hottest 10 years since records began in 1850, all occurred in the past decade.
A recent climate report from the EPA shows Philadelphia area residents now face an additional four to six heat waves each year compared to 60 years ago.
“Heat waves are natural and expected, but the drastic increase that we’re seeing in the frequency, intensity and the amount of the year that’s taken up by heat waves is absolutely abnormal and is a result of climate change,” said Adam Ortiz, former EPA administrator for the mid-Atlantic region.