It’s a hot one today–with a smog alert, to boot. Especially after a few unseasonably (and gloriously) cool days, maybe now is the time to stay inside and check out this “1001 Blistering Future Summers” interactive from New Jersey-based news and research nonprofit Climate Central.
Type your city into the search box to see its projected average summer temperatures in 2100–and a location that currently showcases that climate. Here’s a game: Enter the name of your city, then type in the comparison it gives, and so on until the map runs out of suggestions. The map is limited to the lower 48 states, but eventually, it runs out of American examples–the country just doesn’t get that hot right now. Instead, the interactive compares those hottest American cities to Kuwait City, Kuwait – which has a stunning average summer temperature of 114.08 degrees Fahrenheit.
If you don’t have the time or inclination to play with the interactive tool yourself, here’s what you need to know about Atlanta, which currently boasts an average summer temperature of 87.64 degrees. By the year 2100 (when we’ll be part of the megalopolis known as Char-Lanta), the temperature will be 96.69 degrees–or about as hot as Pharr, Texas. I’ve been told that Atlanta magazine has a policy against using the term “Hotlanta” in articles or headlines. But according to my editor, “This is the one instance in which it seems permissible.”
