SPECIAL REPORT: Climate change’s impact to the Desert Southwest

Our Chief Weather Forecaster Melissa Zaremba explains the concern of climate change and how it’s influencing us and our environment. 

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY-TV) - 2024 was the hottest summer on record for the Desert Southwest and Earth reached its warmest temperature ever. Experts say climate change is the reason for the rising temperatures and is affecting our planet. 

Hot weather is typical for the Desert Southwest, but climate change is kicking things up a notch. Temperatures are becoming warmer and our summer months are becoming hotter and more intense year after year. Chief Weather Forecaster Melissa Zaremba spoke with a climate expert to understand climate change and what it could mean for the future of the Desert Southwest.

Triple digit temperatures is what we can expect throughout the summer months here in the Desert Southwest.

But as our climate changes, our weather is changing too… 

With longer stretches of dangerous heat, more days with above average temperatures, and more record setting hot temperatures than cold ones. 

It’s a trend that climate central meteorologist Shel Winkley is all too familiar with. 

“What we know through scientific data is that humans have exponentially have increased the warming beyond anything we have seen in earth’s history,” says Meteorologist for Climate Central Shel Winkley. 

Winkley says fall is the fastest warming season for the city of Yuma and over the past 50 years they've seen our temperature increase about four degrees. 

Now that may not seem like a lot, but it can make a significant difference. 

“Think about when your temperature comes up a couple of degrees from what’s normal, you don’t feel well. You get a fever and your body tries to react to solve that. That's the same thing we are doing, the earth essentially has a fever,” says Winkley. 

And the science behind it is clear on how we got to this point.

“We have done that by burning things like coal, oil, and natural gas, its carbon pollution that we have pumped into the atmosphere,” says Winkley. 

With the extra heat it even brings challenges to our local agriculture and crops. 

“The whole November slot was off schedule. The celery is off schedule the cauliflower is off schedule. That’s why we had some markets in November because the crop was just pushed back, it just went dormant, it was just too hot,” says Chief Agricultural Officer Matt McGuire from JV Smith Companies. 

Chief Agricultural Officer Matt McGuire from JV Smith Companies shares some of the techniques they use to protect their crops.

“Different times of the year we are doing different things to counteract it, so during the warm part of the year in September when we are planting we use sprinklers and we use a lot of sprinklers at night that cool the beds and cool the plants because they need to cool off,” says McGuire. 

McGuire says no matter what the weather conditions are, it won’t stop them from growing. 

“We are going to adapt to it and we are going to continue to keep growing vegetables in this area,” says McGuire. 

So a lot of us may wonder how can this ongoing warming be prevented.

“We should be working to bring down our carbon pollution and try to bend the curve back the other way so that we can leave the planet to future generations to give them a livable planet to live on as well,” says Winkley. 

And climate experts also say there may come a day where the Desert Southwest could be considered unlivable, so just making a few lifestyle changes now could help slow down this warming trend. 

Experts say planting more trees, recycling, using reusable items, and carpooling are some simple and easy things we can do every day to help better our planet.