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Study: San Antonio's Weather Will Feel Like Nuevo Laredo's By 2080

Joey Palacios
/
Texas Public Radio
The border crossing at Nuevo Laredo.

A new study shows what the climate will be like for major Texas cities in 2080. Bottom line: It will be warmer and drier for most Texans.

To make the study relatable, researchers at North Carolina State and the University of Maryland, crunched the numbers and found spots on the map where the climate is currently like they think it will be in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin in about sixty years.

In six decades, Houston will be like it is now in Ciudad Mante, Mexico, where winters are 15 degrees warmer and 84 percent drier, according to the study that can be found online.

Dallas will be like Estelle, La., where winters are 8 degrees warmer and 133 percent wetter.

San Antonio will be like Nuevo Laredo, where winters are 6 degrees warmer and 55 percent drier.

Researcher Matt Fitzpatrick, an associate professor at the University of Maryland, said the study only tried to find comparison cities in North America, but some Texas cities, like Houston, were hard to match that way.

"These places in particular are changing to climates that are not present north of the Equator, so they might be present somewhere else on the earth [like] India or Asia somewhere or Africa," Fitzpatrick said.

The study looked at emissions and used 27 climate models to find the comparison cities.

Meanwhile, CPS Energy will hold a public meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19 at La Villita on a plan to improve climate conditions locally.

The City of San Antonio, UTSA and the consulting firm Navigant developed the Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.

CPS seeks public opinion on the plan to reduce local greenhouse gases and adapt the city to the effects of climate change.

The public input session will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Villita Assembly Building at 401 Villita Street. Free parking starts at 4 p.m. in the garage at 125 Navarro. Speakers must sign up by 5 p.m.

Brian Kirkpatrick can be reached at Brian@TPR.org and on Twitter at @TPRBrian.