Ah, summer—the days are long and warm, and people flock outdoors
to soak up the bright sunshine. But as important as it is to get
out and enjoy barbecues and cool off in the pool, it’s equally
important to comprehensively apply sun block. After just five
sunburns the risk of melanoma doubles, according to The Skin
Cancer Foundation. But some parts of the country, it turns out,
are more likely to have residents develop or die from skin
cancer, so The Daily Beast decided to take a look at the most
recent available data to find out where the risk of melanoma is
the greatest. We first took into account the mean number of
clear summer days in the 100 biggest cities in America for which
there was data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. Then we factored in the rates of melanoma
incidence and deaths from melanoma per 100,000 people for each
city’s surrounding county, using 2003-2007 data from the
National Cancer Institute. Each datapoint was weighted equally.
This summer, be sure to stay cool a