If Americans think record-breaking summer heat in recent years has been brutal, just wait several decades.
That's the message of a new project from Climate Central, a nonprofit climate news and research organization based in New Jersey.
According to the research, U.S. cities could be up to 12 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than they are today by 2100. St. Paul, Minnesota could feel like Dallas, Texas. Las Vegas could feel like places in Saudi Arabia, with average temperatures of 111 degrees Fahrenheit. Phoenix could feel like Kuwait City, one of the hottest cities in the world, with average temperatures of 114 degrees Fahrenheit.
The scientists' findings are summed up in the report, "1,001 Blistering Future Summers," which includes an interactive tool (below) that allows users to look up projected June-August temperatures in their communities by century's end.¬†
"There are a lot of reports out there that look at U.S. or global temperature projections through the end of the century, but it's hard for people to get a sense of what that really will feel like," said Alyson Kenward, the director of climate science research at Climate Central who co-authored the report. "We wanted to drill down and give local perspective for people."
(Search tip: If you live in a small town or even a small city, you'll likely be unable to find your exact data. Instead, try searching for your nearest medium or large city.)