Dangerous overnight temperatures to hit Sacramento during heatwave, forecast shows
With a string of triple digit days expected to hit Sacramento next week, both daytime peak temperatures and nightime lows could prove dangerous for vulnerable residents.
Triple-digit temperatures are expected to bake the region for as many as four days next week starting Monday, with nightly lows hardly dropping below 70 degrees Fahrenheit.
“My first thoughts go to our unhoused community,” said Ilanka Zlatar, president of climate advocacy organization 350 Sacramento. “I worry about them, and will be filling up a cooler with ice and water bottles to try and bring them some relief.”
Summer nights that don’t cool down, according to health experts, limit the ability to cool off from scorching days and amplify health risks. The city’s homeless population, the elderly and Sacramento residents without air conditioning are at the highest risk.
“Then I think about the people in Sacramento who don’t have air conditioning,” Zlatar added, “and then I think about wildfire season because then people really can’t escape the impacts of climate change.”
Scientists assert that extreme heat and intensifying heat waves are the deadliest symptoms of climate change because they exacerbate health problems. Reporting has also shown that government agencies including California undercount heat-related deaths.
According to the Climate Shift Index, a national weather tool measuring forecast data against climate science, climate change is making the higher nighttime lows this week three times more likely.
An analysis from non profit research and news organization Climate Central showed summer minimum overnight temperatures increased by 2.5 degrees in Sacramento since 1970. Hot days coupled with hot nights can be especially dangerous.
That change is even more stark in Fresno, which is seeing six times the number of hot nights over the last decade. Across the country, the frequency of hot summer days coupled with hot nights have increased in more than 80% of U.S. cities.
Warmer nights often disrupts sleep, which studies show is correlated with harmful physical and mental human health impacts — particularly to pregnant women, members of low-income communities, and the elderly.
To keep households cool, public health experts recommend keeping blinds and shades closed during the day to preserve cooler nighttime temperatures. For households without air conditioning, set up a fan to blow on ice to circulate cool air.
Sacramento County has opened cooling centers, with more information available at 211sacramento.org. Several locations include the North A Emergency Shelter, Outreach and Engagement Center, Sam and Bonnie Pannel Center and the Citrus Heights Police Department.
