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Alaska, along with the rest of the far north, is seeing both the largest shifts as well as the most obvious shifts. Waving my hands a bit, a twenty degree difference in Arizona means it's hotter; a twenty degree difference in Alaska means melting permafrost, retreating glaciers, and widespread brood failures for migratory bird populations.

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A 20° increase in Arizona (picking Yuma where my father grew up) would mean much worse. The record high is 124° from 1995[1], at 144° and 5-10 minutes of exposure we'd see death[2].

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuma,_Arizona#Climate [2] https://www.livescience.com/34128-limits-human-survival.html

we talking about averages here, not maximums

Unclear to me why average temps would move up and at the same time the variance in the range of temps would shrink? If the average goes up 20° why should we expect the potential maximum temperature to go up less than 20°?

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