The following slides are for use with UCAR Center for Science Education’s Feeling the Heat classroom activity
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Feeling the Heat
This presentation is full of data and images to get you thinking. Discuss as a class the patterns you see and the reasons for those patterns.
Look for patterns in the data: How have heat waves and average temperature changed over time in Los Angeles, CA?
Consider reasons for patterns: How has global climate changed over time? How has Los Angeles changes over time, and how might that impact the heat island effect?
The number of heat waves in Los Angeles, CA 1900-2008.
Do you see a pattern?
How have heat waves changed through time?
Duration of heat waves in Los Angeles, CA (measured in days.)
Has there been a change through time?
This graph shows the average temperature for each year in Los Angeles, CA.
How has the temperature in Los Angeles changed over time?
The highest temperatures are found in the most dense part of a city. That’s the urban heat island effect.
The next 3 slides show how Los Angeles has changed over time. How do you think the heat island effect has changed as the city changed?
Los Angeles, CA in 1877. East LA is on the left and West LA is on the right. (Library of Congress)
Los Angeles, CA in 1909. (Library of Congress)
Los Angeles, CA in 2002. (NASA/JPL)
Population change in Los Angeles, CA since 1890
(Data from US Census Bureau)