Originally published at: It's been 110 degrees in Phoenix for 54 days this year, breaking record | Boing Boing
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Headline corrected
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My parents live in Wichita Falls, Texas, where this summer they have also set a record for most 100 degree days, plus their hottest temperature ever. Here in New Jersey 2 days ago, we hit 96. On September 8. Yeah, climate change sure is some hoax.
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Legend has it that Phoenix got its name because during summer months the local birds are known to spontaneously burst into flame mid-flight.
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This isn’t actually true, although it’s close - the reality (54 non-consecutive days) is plenty bad.
The original source seems to be a Guardian article that misinterpreted a post from the national weather service. Other news organizations got it right. We can’t post links on this BBS, but you can just plug “phoenix 110” into the search engine of choice to confirm.
This might be an interesting data point to study the spread of (mis)information on the internet.
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The Guardian have since made a correction
The headline and text of this article were amended on 10 September 2023 because an earlier version was incorrect to refer to the 110F temperature being recorded for the 54th consecutive day. Rather it was recorded for the 54th day this year.
Welcome to BoingBoing!
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Was going to say, I keep pretty good track of this because all my co-workers live in PHX as well as my in-laws.
Thank you!
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I got an aunt, cousin, and former In-Laws that moved out there. I have no idea how the hell they manage. I guess they just stay indoors.
I guess its nice in Janissary when many of us are scraping ice off our windows, but I’ve always said I’d rather be cold than hot.
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If I were more capable I would create a way to ‘short’ property values in places like Phoenix.
Even if climate change doesn’t roast the place into oblivion, their water supply has a life expectancy shorter than my own. The crash is coming, we all know it is coming. It is undeniably coming, the only question is when.
The same applies to much of Florida, the Gulf Coast, parts of Texas and large parts of California (though in California there is at least the possibility of actual steps being taken).
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Came for this KotH quote, was not dissapointed.
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I would be surprised if shorting would be viable; that’s normally a thing where there’s actually a spread of opinions on whether the asset’s value will go up or down on the relevant timescale.
In this case there’s definitely some disagreement on the spectrum from ‘will be worse’ to ‘a man’s flesh is is own; the water belongs to the HOA’; but I’m not sure that you could find anyone betting on the value going up.
I suppose that the small but nonzero possibility of people holding clearly underwater assets getting bailed out might be something you could construct a high risk speculative instrument around; but it’s not like anyone’s just debating whether the upcoming aquifer call is going to disappoint or exceed expectations.
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Literally every person, REIT and corporation buying or continuing to own property in Phoenix is betting on the value either going up or at least not collapsing. The fact that it will collapse - eventually, inevitably, inexorably - is largely ignored by all of them.
They may get bailed out. Certainly the hedge funds, banks and billionaires will, if history is any guide. Most of the regular folk will be fucked, as per usual.
Which is why I could not actually engage in a ‘short’ of the Phoenix property market. Because it would amount to profiting from the collapse of human lives.
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California has more than enough water for all the people who live in the state. The problem is that California dedicates a huge portion of its water supply to growing food that is shipped out of state or even shipped out of country.
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It’s brutal, man.
Like I noted above, I know lots of people who live there and my company’s office is in the valley.
I’ve spent a lot of time in PHX, most of the time not in summer, but enough to know that it feels unlivable to me coming from coastal Southern CA. I was there for work in August one time for 2 weeks and the daytime high never dipped below 115. My internal clock would be like, “right now after lunch would be a nice time to take a walk around the block”. Yea, no.
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Thanks everyone. I’ve corrected the post.
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I like to say: when it’s cold, you can always put on another layer of clothes. When it is hot, you can only peel your skin off once…
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Really? They felt it was NECESSARY to urge people to use air conditioning when expected highs are around 110F. Like people are going to be thinking: “I’m exceedingly hot and my air conditioner is off. If only I could think of some way to cool down.”
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