DC, NoVA At Risk Of Becoming A Climate Change 'Hot Spot': Report

WASHINGTON, DC — Summer in the city is getting hotter in the Washington, D.C., region and even more so in the Northeast United States, where temperatures have risen dangerously fast since the late 1800s, a new study shows. The folks at The Washington Post used more than a century of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration temperature data to examine more than 3,100 counties.

Seventy-one counties have seen the average temperatures increase 2 degrees Celsius, according to The Washington Post. That’s the threshold at which experts warn global catastrophic effects such as the elimination of most coral reefs and enormous sea level rise. The 2015 Paris climate accord included a commitment to keep the planet's long-term average temperature increases well below 2 degrees Celsius.

New York City has already crossed that line. The average temperatures in Manhattan, Queens and The Bronx have risen 2.2 degrees Celsius, or 3.96 degrees Fahrenheit, since 1895, according to the Post. That's more than twice the national increase of 1 degree Celsius.

The majority of the “hot spots” are on the coast lines. Here are some of the northern Virginia communities with the most warming:

• Washington, D.C.: +1.5º Celsius
• Arlington County: +1.5º Celsius
• Alexandria: +1.5º Celsius
• Fairfax City: +1.5º Celsius
• Fairfax County: +1.4º Celsius
• City of Fredericksburg: +1.4º Celsius
• City of Manassas: +1.2º Celsius
• Loudoun County: +1.2º Celsius

Some 34 million Americans live in "rapidly heating regions," the Post says. The Northeast is especially troubled — every state in the region except Pennsylvania has seen temperatures from December through February rise 2 degrees Celsius since the late 19th century, according to the report.

"Scientists do not completely understand the Northeast hot spot," the Post reports. "But fading winters and very warm water offshore are the most likely culprits, experts say. That's because climate change is a cycle that feeds on itself."

Already more than one in 10 Americans are living in rapidly heating regions, including Los Angeles, New York City and much of the Northeast, according to the Post. Rhode Island is the first state in the continental United States to eclipse the 2-degree Celsius increase.

With the exception of Minnesota and Michigan, the Midwest hasn’t risen in temperature nearly at the same rates as the Northeast and West Coast.

“The only part of the United States that has not warmed significantly since the late 1800s is the South, especially Mississippi and Alabama, where data in some cases shows modest cooling, the Washington Post reports.

Read The Washington Post's full report to see how other places in the lower 48 states have fared.

Gus Saltonstall contributed to this report.