How Phoenix is planning for the 'Hurricane Katrina' of heat

Phoenix, Arizona.
(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

Phoenix, Arizona, is already the hottest major city in the United States, and climate experts expect temperatures to keep rising to the point where there are more than an additional two dozen days per year when the thermometer hits 105 degrees or higher by 2050. That could lead to what Susan Clark, the director of the Sustainable Urban Environments Initiative at the University of Buffalo, describes as a "Hurricane Katrina"-size heat disaster in the U.S.'s fifth largest city, The Washington Post reports.

Such a scenario could be brought on by water becoming too hot, disrupting a power generation system dependent on cooling towers, or wildfires taking out power lines. Citizens would then potentially be deprived of water and air conditioning, two necessities in dangerous heat. Thankfully, there are efforts, led by both experts and community members, to make sure Phoenix is able to evade this type of disaster, the Post reports.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.