What's at stake?
As heat waves become more frequent and intense in Fresno, as a result of climate change, should local officials be doing more to proactively cool the city?
We’re no strangers to heat in the Central Valley, but this summer has tested many limits.
Fresno residents desperate for fall will have to wait until mid-October for a reprieve, as triple-digit temperatures are expected through Saturday, with two maximum temperature records – 102 degrees recorded Wednesday, and 105 degrees recorded Thursday – already broken.
But has it been Fresno’s hottest summer, as it has been for California and the world?
No, but it’s a close second, said Antoinette Serrato, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Hanford. That record was set in 2000. This year, average temperatures this summer hit 85.4 degrees.
July was indeed the hottest month recorded in Fresno, since record keeping began in 1887.
It has been the hottest summer in Fresno when looking at the maximum and minimum temperatures, Serrato added — and Fresno maxed out at 114 degrees.
Summers have been getting hotter and more intense in Fresno — a result of climate change, Serrato said.
Public health officials have stressed the impact of more heat waves, causing more heat strokes and exacerbating pre-existing conditions including kidney failure and cardiovascular disease.
The average number of days of triple-digit heat has increased in the 77 years that the National Weather Service has collected data, showing a clear warming trend.
This year, we’re at 60 days of triple-digit heat, a number that’s expected to climb over the coming days. 2021 was a record-setting year for extreme heat in Fresno, with 69 days at or over 100 degrees.
Heat waves in October aren’t very common, Serrato added, although she said it’s difficult to attribute individual events to climate change.
Data from Climate Central, a research and journalism nonprofit, suggest that Wednesday’s high temperatures of 102 degrees was five times more likely, as a result of climate change.
What are Fresno officials are doing about extreme heat?
As extreme weather events linked to climate change wreak havoc on communities across the world, cities and counties are scrambling to increase local response.
In Fresno, local government climate adaptation efforts have historically focused on other impacts from climate change, from drought-proofing water supplies to improving energy efficiency in city buildings.
When it comes to extreme heat, most efforts are focused on helping residents respond — although some city leaders are ramping up efforts to proactively cool the city.
The city hosts cooling centers, providing free bus rides to them, when temperatures hit 105 degrees or greater. The threshold was temporarily lowered to 100 degrees in 2022, after unhoused residents argued that the need was great. In December, the city council voted to increase the threshold back to 105 degrees, after Councilmember Miguel Arias said that the city didn’t see an increase in attendance.
Volunteer crews led by homeless advocates are typically out in heat waves, providing unhoused residents with water bottles and rides to cooling centers.
Instead of opening cooling centers in rural communities, Fresno County has urged residents to visit libraries during heat waves.
The city also partners with Fresno Unified School District to open up 15 pools, free to residents, throughout the summer months, in addition to the city’s nine splash pads.
But City Councilmember Tyler Maxwell, who represents eastern Fresno neighborhoods, is hoping to proactively shade the city — an expert-approved tactic — by increasing the city’s tree canopy, starting with an initiative in 2022 to guarantee that 1,000 trees are planted each year.
The city has a new goal of planting 4,600 trees per year to increase tree coverage across Fresno neighborhoods to 20%. But Maxwell’s efforts to beef up funding in the city budget was rebuffed by Mayor Jerry Dyer’s administration in May, prioritizing cleanup of the city’s freeways, instead.
“When it comes down to the plan, in terms of where we need to meet our quota, 1,000 trees is just not cutting it,” Maxwell said.
“It’s not necessarily cheap to plant all these trees. Just planting 1,000 trees every year costs close to half a million dollars, but we take out 1,200 trees every year.”
Maxwell said he is working with Arias to introduce a new tree replacement policy that will come before the council by the end of the year.
Escalating energy costs force residents, businesses, to make hard choices
This summer has been a rude awakening for Valley residents, who have seen some of the highest PG&E bills in their lifetime, in the wake of four rate increases approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in 2024.
The utility company’s REACH program, meant to help customers pay overdue bills, stopped accepting applications at the end of August, due to a lack of funds.
Efforts in Fresno to explore the creation of a city-run utility have stalled.
Meanwhile, many people still lack functional air conditioning units, even as temperatures repeatedly swelled above 110 degrees this summer, breaking a record for the number of consecutive days above 110 degrees in July.
California — and Fresno — don’t have any laws mandating a maximum indoor temperature that landlords have to maintain, unlike cities like Phoenix or Palm Springs.
Councilmember Luis Chavez introduced a small pilot program in August to provide 10 residents at a senior village in his southeast Fresno district — who only had swamp coolers in their units — a free air conditioning and heating unit, at a total cost of $5,000, with free installation from the Ironworkers Local 55 union.
Would having a chief heat officer — an increasingly common position in cities across the globe, from Los Angeles to Miami to Phoenix — help the city’s efforts become more effective?
“I don’t think having that sort of position would hurt in a place like Fresno,” Maxwell said. “Because we’re such a large organization, communication can sometimes be difficult, and so there isn’t really a single individual, at least on the administrative side, championing this issue.”
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