The good news is that Long Island escaped the worst of an expanding heat dome that had 100 million people across 27 states on alert for extremely high temperatures and broke records from the Great Lakes region through much of the Eastern United States.
Temperatures hit 85 degrees in Nassau Sunday. This compared to Baltimore, which reached a record 101 degrees Saturday, and Dulles, Va., which hit 100.
In other states, the humidity made it feel even hotter. Heat index values – a measure of how conditions feel with humidity taken in to account – reached over 100 in Philadelphia and Tampa, Fla.
New York City, just to our west, reached a heat index of 103 degrees between Saturday and Sunday.
According to a gauge used by the National Weather Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, New York was among several cities in which residents faced the highest level of health risk.
Long Island residents also benefitted from living on an island with easy access to beaches, private pools, municipal pools, and a stable electric grid that kept the air conditioning running for those indoors.
Despite escaping the highest temperatures, Nassau and Suffolk counties also wisely offered those without air conditioning access to a handful of cooling centers.
The bad news is that we can expect an increase in heat domes in the future, some of which Long Island will not escape.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2023 was the warmest year since global records began being kept in 1850.
And the 10 warmest years in the 174 years since the record keeping started occurred in the last decade – 2014-2023. That is an unfortunate trend we can expect to continue.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration pointed out that 2005, the first year to set a new global record in the 21st century, is now the 12th warmest year on record.
Last summer, the temperature in Phoenix, Ariz., reached at least 110 degrees on 55 days.
Yes, it was a dry heat, but it still officially killed 644 in Maricopa County. And going outside for any amount of time was considered a serious health risk.
A study published in May 2023 projected that a blackout during a five-day heat wave would kill nearly 1% of Phoenix’s population – about 13,000 people – and send 800,000 to emergency rooms.
No, Long Island is not Phoenix in many ways and our highest temperatures don’t come anywhere close to 110 degrees – at least not yet.
But that doesn’t mean those on Long Island are in the clear. The temperatures on this planet are continuing to rise, Long Island included. We should respond now
For starters, we can stop ignoring the clear scientific evidence and acknowledge the central role man-made climate change has had on our environment.
Oil and gas companies, aided by willing politicians, have spent hundreds of millions, if not more, over many years spreading disinformation about climate science.
Those arguments need to be ignored – and any state or federal official who spouts the company line should be defeated at the ballot box.
This includes the presidential race in which President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump present very different responses to climate change.
Biden returned the United States to the Paris Climate Accords and joined other leaders in new efforts to keep a 1.5°C limit on warming within reach after Trump pulled the United States out of the international agreement.
Biden has promoted clean energy through the Inflation Reduction Act, including grants for electric charging stations and federal regulations. Trump has promised to remove federal regulations for oil and gas producers, even offering gas and oil companies a free hand at climate regulations in exchange for a $1 billion contribution to his presidential campaign.
He also told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he wished to be a dictator on day one in office to close the southern border and “drill, drill, drill.”
We should also ignore those who say switching to cleaner energy costs too much.
Increasingly frequent and severe weather events of all kinds, intensified by climate change, are imposing billions of dollars in damage annually, destroying communities and costing lives.
“Insurers have responded to these climate-related financial risks by withdrawing services, hiking premiums, and gutting coverage—actions that are affecting many U.S. households’ and businesses’ ability to obtain sufficient insurance coverage at an affordable rate or, in some cases, altogether,” according to the non-profit Center for American Progress.
State officials must closely review insurer changes to avoid this occurring in New York.
State and local officials must update plans to deal with future crises.
Many still refer to Superstorm Sandy in October 2012 as a hurricane, although technically, its wind speeds did not justify that designation.
But even at the superstorm level Sandy flooded the New York City subway system, many Nassau communities and all the tunnels leading into New York City except the Lincoln Tunnel.
Large parts of Nassau lost electricity for days and, in some areas, weeks.
At least 43 people died in New York City as a result of the storm and 53 perished in the state. Thousands of homes and an estimated 250,000 vehicles were destroyed during the storm.
The economic losses in New York City were estimated to be roughly $19 billion,, according to a report by the city. An estimated $32.8 billion was required for restoration across the state, according to CNN
But has it been enough? That’s a question that should be asked regularly.
State and local officials need to consider closely whether to allow homes and businesses to be rebuilt in areas subject to flooding in the future.
“Don’t throw good money after bad,” as they say.
Officials must also consider what is required of homes and businesses built in areas subject to flooding.
State legislators and the governor also need to be vigilant about changes made by insurers to rates and coverage.
The skyrocketing cost of home insurance in Florida is causing some residents to sell their properties and relocate, according to a survey by real estate brokerage Redfin and data available on Zillow.
Some 11.9% of homeowners in the Sunshine State who told Redfin that they plan to move in the next year said they were doing so because of climbing insurance costs.
The main reason behind the crisis can be traced back to the increased risk of extreme weather events. Excessive litigation, widespread fraud and the rising cost of inflation are also blamed.
We don’t want that to happen in New York, especially on Long Island with its long coastline.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency should also change its policy.
FEMA responds to natural disasters like hurricanes or earthquakes — disasters with major and obvious damage to physical infrastructure. But the agency has not historically responded to extreme heat.
That needs to change.
What were once hot spells have now turned into heat domes in which roads buckle, first responders are overwhelmed and hundreds die.
Climate change is a global problem that will get worse before it gets better.
We need to prepare for that reality starting here in Nassau County.
