TAMPA, Fla — Feeling like these Florida nights aren't cooling off quickly enough? There's some truth to that.
Climate Central states that "extreme summer nights are warming nearly twice as fast as extreme summer days."
The graphic below shows the warming of our low temperatures over a 51-year period. The overall trend shows average low temperatures warming from 73.5 degrees to almost 77 degrees, an average increase of 3.7 degrees.
Temperatures are usually cooler at night, which gives the body some much-needed relief from hot daytime temperatures. This increase in warmer summer nights impacts those necessary cool-off hours, which would lead to serious health risks for people who need to recover from the extreme summertime heat.
While nighttime warmth certainly doesn't compare to our scorching summer afternoons, warmer summer nights could mean a greater risk for heat-related illnesses, especially for sensitive groups like the chronically ill, elderly, young children, and those without air conditioning.
Those blessed with powerful air conditioning have another concern: their wallets. The warmer temperatures leads to higher energy consumption, and those cooling costs can get expensive.
We see these warm numbers reflected on our overnight lows from this July. So far, 2022 had the warmest July night on record, and 16 days out of the month so far had above-average overnight lows.
Tampa is also in the midst of its warmest summer and year on record.
The mean average temperature this year so far is the highest out of previously warmer recorded years. The mean average temperature from January 1 to July 20 is 75.9 degrees, already beating out 2020 which had a mean average temperature of 75.3.
