Students’ favorite cold weather outfits stayed in the closet just a little longer this week as Long Beach experienced an early autumn heat wave.
David Pepper, a climatology lecturer at Cal State Long Beach, said it was not normal to have such high temperatures in October but also not unprecedented.
“Generally, in coastal areas, there is a bit of a temperature lag,” Pepper said. “We tend to stay warmer longer at the end of the year than other places because the ocean heats up throughout the summer. The ocean is a lot warmer now than what it was in the summer, so the heat sticks around a bit longer than it does in inland areas.”
However, Ewa Burchard, who teaches a natural disasters class at CSULB, said the heat wave could be an effect of global warming.
“This heat wave seems very specific because it has a lot of moisture,” she said. “[I’ve read] a scientist named Alexander Gershunov from the [Scripp Institution of Oceanography in UC San Diego] suggest this heat wave may be related to climate warming in California. He did a study on this specific condition – rising temperatures in coastal areas not only throughout the day but also throughout the night.”
Jesse Christensen, a senior business economics major who played Frisbee shirtless on upper campus, said he took his shirt off because he wanted to escape the heat.
“It’s been crazy hot,” Christensen said. “At my house, I do everything I can to get cool, but it’s still hot during the night, and it’s hot all the time. I just don’t know what to do.”
Like Christensen, many other students expressed some level of exasperation and found different ways to cope with the weather.
Nutrition major Anna Choeun stayed in the shade and shared her secret drink for surviving hot days.
“It can get draining, so [we] need to stay hydrated,” Choeun said. “I drink coconut juice because it has a lot of electrolytes and hydrates you a lot better.”
Amy Kim, a senior nursing major, said she was anxious for cooler weather.
“I’m ready for it to cool down a bit,” Kim said. “I’ve stocked up on my scarves and want to set aside my summer clothes already. I’m just over it.”
But students may soon find relief from the heat wave, as the hottest day was Monday and cooling can be expected the rest of October, according to Pepper.