Syracuse just busted a 66-year-old record for hottest summer nights

Syracuse, N.Y. -- This summer has been the hottest on record in Syracuse -- at night, at least.

Syracuse has now had 19 nights since June 1 when the temperature never fell below 70 degrees. It’s all but certain that we’ll add to the record today. The low temperature this morning in Syracuse was 74, and it’s not forecast to drop below that by midnight.

The previous records for most nights of at 70 or more was 18, set in 1955.

In addition, the average low temperature since June 1 is also the hottest ever recorded in Syracuse. Records date back to 1902.

This summer’s overnight heat is the exclamation point on a long-term trend: Average summer nighttime lows are nearly 1 degree warmer than they were a decade ago. And while high temperatures get headlines and heat alerts from the National Weather Service, hot temperatures overnight are of equal or greater concern for human health.

“High nighttime temperatures are dangerous because if somebody’s body temperature is elevated, it doesn’t come down as much or as quickly,” Nicholas Rajkovich, an architecture professor at University of Buffalo who researches the effect of climate change on buildings and people, told Syracuse.com earlier this summer.

When temperatures -- and homes -- stay hot at night, that can cause heat strokes or heart attacks in vulnerable people who won’t have access to air-conditioning, Rajkovich said.

Excess heat directly kills an average of 700 Americans each year, more than any other weather-related cause, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The toll is likely greater than that: Studies indicate that hotter nighttime temperatures can increase the chances for stroke and heart attacks, and can cause poor sleep, which can lead to longer-term health problems.

“Unusually hot” low temperatures have risen faster across the continental U.S. than high temperatures, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Climate scientists have predicted that global warming would first be felt in rising nighttime temperatures rather than hotter high temperatures, although those are rising, too. Rajkovich said Syracusans may have to adapt to increasingly uncomfortable nights.

“Syracuse has always had hot summers,” he said, “but it’s going to get even hotter in the future.”

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