Though we know that rising sea levels are going to be a terrible like, actually horrific thing globally, and that the Bay Area stands to lose our airports, among other things, weather-wise we stand be just fine in 40 or 50 years while much of the rest of the country suffers miserably. Another gloomy New York Times piece today on the future of the country's weather notes that the East Coast and Southeast are in for decades of heat waves and bigger hurricanes, in addition to changing coastlines as sea levels rise, and the northern Great Plains states, while potentially OK, are in for really muggy years too. The best bets for cities of the future with nice, cool weather: Anchorage, Portland, and the Bay Area.
The predictions are all based on this new paper in the journal Nature which looks at near-surface air temperature predictions both under a "business-as-usual" scenario come 2047, and an "emissions stabilization scenario" come 2069.
Professors in the realm of climate science are already discussing the idea of "climate change migrants" of the future as weather becomes intolerable for some in other parts of the country and populations start to rise in the Pacific Northwest as a result. And Ben Strauss, director of the program on sea level rise at Climate Central, tells the Times, "the strip of coastal land running from Canada down to the Bay Area is probably the best. You see a lot less extreme heat; it’s the one place in the West where there’s no real expectation of major water stress, and while sea level will rise there as everywhere, the land rises steeply out of the ocean, so it’s a relatively small factor."
Of course, the Bay Area doesn't need any more reasons to become more expensive though, arguably, it's such a desirable and expensive place to live now in part because of our mild climate. And just to warn off everyone from San Francisco in specific: Rising sea levels are definitely going to impact people in some neighborhoods! It will only take a few feet to submerge Treasure Island, the Port of Oakland, SFO, and parts of Dogpatch and Mission Bay something that is already being planned for, as you can see in this new study about the need for a levee to protect Mission Bay from a predicted 15-inch rise in the Bay by 2050.
And then there was this fun poster of the San Francisco archipelago as it would look if the sea rose 200 feet. Which probably isn't going to happen. Probably.
Just to recap, when planning for the estate you'll leave your grandchildren, property in Anchorage is probably way undervalued right now.
