'The Trend Is Unmistakable': New Analysis Shows Heat Records Broken Twice as Often as Cold Ones

A new analysis revealed Tuesday that over the past two decades heat records across the United States have been broken twice as often as cold ones—underscoring experts’ warnings about the increasingly dangerous consequences of failing to dramatically curb planet-warming emissions.

The study was conducted by The Associated Press, which reviewed nearly a century’s worth of data and spoke with climatologists who confirmed the reporters’ conclusions about more frequent hot days and fewer cold ones align with scientific peer-reviewed findings. According to the experts, “the trend is unmistakable.”

“We are in a period of sustained and significant warming,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt, “and—over the long run—will continue to explore and break the warm end of the spectrum much more than the cold end.”

Outlining its research and findings, the news agency reported:

“As a measure of climate change, the dailies [temperature records] will tell you more about what’s happening,” explained Stanford climate scientist Chris Field. “The impacts of climate change almost always come packaged in extremes.”

“You are getting more extremes,” added former Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton, who has been studying hot and cold records since 2000. “Your chances for getting more dangerous extremes are going up with time.”