Alex Hall, the UCLA study’s lead researcher, says in addition
to… (Christina House / For the…) By the middle of the century,
the number of days with temperatures above 95 degrees each year
will triple in downtown Los Angeles, quadruple in portions of
the San Fernando Valley and even jump five-fold in a portion of
the High Desert in L.A. County, according to a new UCLA climate
change study. The study, released Thursday, is the first to
model the Southland's complex geography of meandering
coastlines, mountain ranges and dense urban centers in high
enough resolution to predict temperatures down to the level of
micro climate zones, each measuring 2 1/4 square miles. The
projections are for 2041 to 2060. Not only will the number of
hot days increase, but the study found that the hottest of those
days will break records, said Alex Hall, lead researcher on the
study by UCLA's Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
The record for downtown Los Angeles is 113 degrees, set Sept.
27, 2010, when the Department