Cooling degree days increased in Philadelphia by 25%. See how heat can impact learning.
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Rising temperatures are having broad-reaching impacts including in the classroom. The heat can also affect the learning process.
Keeping schools cool is a growing challenge as our climate warms and many places experience hotter summers and colder seasons.
Access to cooling is critical to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of students and school staff in our rapidly warming world.
Cooling degree days — a measure of cooling demand — have increased during the back-to-school period [late July through early September] since 1970 in nearly all [231 or 95%] of the 243 U.S. locations analyzed by Climate Central. Cooling degree days have increased by 25% in the Philadelphia area.
The way we measure this is the values are the difference between a location's daily average temperature and 65 degrees. That 65 degrees is generally considered an engineering constant for what the ideal indoor temperature would be.
An example of this is if our average temperature [the high and the low temperature] is 85 degrees for any given day. And then you subtract 65 degrees, that ideal indoor temperature is 20. So that gives 20 cooling degree days in Philadelphia.
Going back to 1970, the number of cooling degree days between July 17 and Sept. 8 increased by 25%.
So that means we're seeing an increasing demand on our system to keep our classrooms at an acceptable temperature for kids to learn effectively.
Over the last 10 years, back-to-school cooling demand increased by about 34% due to human-caused climate change.
A study from the American Economic Journal found that a 1°F hotter school year is associated with a 1% reduction in learning that year, based on test scores — but air conditioning can offset heat-related impacts on learning.