Forecast: permanent climate change

Recent research on climate change has projected dates for when cities and ecosystems around the world will get permanently hotter.

In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers used weather observations, maps, simulations from dozens of computer models and data on hundreds of thousands of species to pinpoint when places will have “an environment like we have never seen before,” according to The Associated Press. With a five-year margin of error on their estimates, the researchers projected that cities in the tropics, like Kingston, Jamaica, will be the first to experience a permanent change in climate in about a decade. Of the 265 cities projected, Anchorage, Alaska, will be the last to change, in 2071.

Most disturbingly, the researchers estimate that every year after 2047, the average global temperature will exceed that of 2005—Earth’s overall hottest year on record.