MIAMI VALLEY — This past April was the warmest on record.
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As seen on News Center 7 Daybreak, the Miami Valley has seen 16 temperature records broken so far this year. That’s the largest amount in Dayton’s History up to the end of April.
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Storm Center 7 Meteorologist Ryan Marando has been sifting through the data to find out if temperature records are being broken over the last decade.
He found out that in the first four months of 1989-1999, the warmest high was 17 degrees and the warmest low was 15 degrees. The coolest high during that time frame was 17 degrees, and the coolest low was 10 degrees.
Compared to the first four months of 2016-2926, with the warmest high being 28 degrees and the warmest low being 28 degrees. The coolest high was 5 degrees, and the coolest low was 2 degrees.
The biggest standouts, the record warmest low temperatures, are happening more often.
“We cannot separate ourselves from nature and from this world. We are all very much interconnected, and it has huge impacts for our health, for our economies,” Kaitlyn Turdeau with Climate Central said.
She said the sun has less to do with the warming trend than we may think.
“At night, we don’t have that solar radiation coming in, and so that’s when the warmth would basically go back out into the atmosphere, back out in space. But when you have a blanket wrapped around the earth, it keeps it more warm,” Trudeau said.
The blanket of humidity, clouds, or concrete that keeps temperatures from cooling off at night impacts our daily life, from our health and sleep to our bills.
“And this disproportionately affects people who are older, people who work outside, people who are experiencing homelessness, people without air conditioning. And so we see a lot of these heat-related mortality numbers jump when we see these really high nighttime minimums,” Trudeau said.
For most people, this means running the air conditioning more at night and keeping fans on.
Dr. Sarah Hussein at Kettering Health says temperatures between 65 and 68 degrees are optimal for sleep. While one hot night may not affect people too much, more than one night could cause problems.
“But ongoing night after night, if you are not sleeping well, it can. Affect your hormones and your appetite can go up, and you may put on weight, fatigue, tiredness, a foggy mind, it can affect your cognition, your judgment, so multiple effects of poor sleep,” Dr. Hussein said.
Dr. Hussein says keeping the room dark, quiet, and cool between 65 and 68 is key to a good night’s rest.
Even staying hydrated or getting a mattress topper with cooling gel can help you stay cooler without running up the electricity bill.
While record-warm temperatures are on the rise, not only here in Dayton but across the country, we can have an impact on which records may be broken in the future.
“Our actions do matter. But it’s not a story of hopelessness. We have the tools we need. We know how to fix the problem. We just kind of need to gather both the collective will to do it,” Trudeau said.
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