Though it may not look like it today (some serious June gloom going on out there), the Los Angeles area is slowly heating up — and there's nothing we can do to stop it.

This, according to a complex new study out of UCLA's Center for Climate Change Solutions. It's being touted today by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as an argument for greener city building codes like requiring “cool” roofs and pavements.

Ironically, though, the study finds that resistance is futile:

However, the majority of the warming seen in the business-as-usual scenario still occurs at all locations in the most likely case under the mitigation scenario, and heat extremes still increase significantly. Therefore adaptation to a changing climate over the next few decades is likely to be inevitable in the Los Angeles region.

Somewhere between the years 2041 and 2060, the number of “extreme hot days” — aka, over 95 degrees — is expected to double, triple, quadruple and even quintuple in L.A. County, depending on which part of the county you're in.

The study points out that the L.A. area's “complex geography” makes for a steep climb in temperature as one moves inland. So the predictions vary widely, with the only constant being that, uh, we're screwed:

  • Coastal areas and central L.A. — the areas with the largest populations — will see the number of extremely hot days approximately triple Los Angeles regional temperature projections.
  • The San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley will see extreme hot days almost quadruple (3.5 to 4 times the current number reaching the local high temperature).
  • Desert and mountain areas will see extreme hot days increase by 4.5 to 6 times the current number.

According to the Los Angeles Times, UCLA climate scientists used a supercomputer to make “1 quintillion calculations … over a period of six months to assess every aspect of 25 global warming models that might be applicable to Southern California.”

Pretty fancy stuff. Wonder what Dr. James Enstrom — the ex-UCLA professor who claims he was fired for challenging the popular liberal notion that pollution will be the death of us, and taking a skeptical stance on global warming in general — thinks of all this new heatwave hogwash.

[@simone_electra / swilson@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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