Austin Among 'Hottest Cities' In U.S., One Of Five Texas Cities Making Top 5 List

AUSTIN, TX — Texans don't need to be reminded how hot the state gets in the summer. But we're going to do it anyway, just because of a new survey that came out Wednesday on The Hottest Hottest Cities in the United States.

Spoiler alert: Four Texas cities — including the capital of Austin — made the Top 5 list in the new reckoning. That's not a typo: Of all the cities in the U.S. deemed among the hottest, Texas has four on the hottest five, according to the new SpareFoot study.

Again, sorry for the reminder. Thankfully, the much-needed rains this week have cooled things off a bit although there is the lingering humidity. It's like that old saying 'it's not the heat, but the humidity...' Sorry again; let's get to it.

According to the SpareFoot survey, Austin, Fort Worth, Dallas and San Antonio are among the top five hottest cities in the country. Houston — notorious for its jungle-like heat — managed to squeak out of the top five in the sixth position. Make no mistake though: Houston also is darn hot in the summer.

An Austin-based company providing listings for self-storage units, SpareFoot primarily conducted the study as something of a public service to its itinerant clientele. As people move, it's good to consider the heat that ill visit them on the date of their move. Hence the brutal reminder for the rest of us enduring the Texas heat to which even the most hardened native is hard pressed in becoming acclimated.

To that end, the company focused on largest-growing cities in the U.S. that are among the hardest hit by climate change. "As we push through the final days of a record-setting summer, we decided to examine how the cities where people are moving to in the largest numbers will fare in the year 2100, given the current trajectory of CO2 emissions," researchers wrote in their summary.

To create this list, SpareFoot took the 15 cities with the largest population increase between 2015 and 2016, according to the United States Census. Then, researchers ranked those cities by two more factors: The Sperling Heat Index and the projected increase in extremely hot days between now and 2100. The Sperling Heat Index combines each city’s average high temperature, nighttime low temperature, dew point, and relative humidity at high temperature.

Given that methodology, Texas figured prominently.

The saving grace of the Texas heat for us natives is it gives us a ready theme of conversation to fill the awkward silence when dealing with strangers or an estranged relative with whom we've recently reconciled. The heat also is good joke fodder for "It's-so-hot-in-Texas-that...." jokes.

(Examples of "it's so hard in Texas" punchlines: I saw a fire hydrant chasing a dog! I'm sweating like a politician on Election Day! The cows are giving evaporated milk! Birds are using tiny potholders to pull worms from the ground! I saw a dog chasing a fire hydrant! But again, we digress.)

According to the survey, it's not a Texas city that takes the top spot in terms of hottest in the nation, but Phoenix. More than 32,000 were added from 2015-16, making Phoenix the largest-growing city in the reckoning. It's also one of the hottest, with a Sperling heat index of 97.7 degrees.

One notch below Phoenix is San Antonio, with a population increase of more than 24,000 from 2015-16 and a heat index of 92.1 degrees. Dallas is next, adding more than 20,000 to its population with a heat index of 92.4 degrees. Fort Worth came in fourth place, adding nearly 20,000 new residents and also logging an overall heat index of 92.4 degrees.

And then there's Austin. According to SpareFoot calculations, the city added 17,738 new residents between 2015-16. The city has a 92.2-degree heat index. Here's another sore note for future generations: According to the reckoning, there will be an increase in the number of "extremely hot days" by 2100 by 79 days. What this means, of course, is that even in the year 2100 people will be making with the "It's so hot in Texas jokes." It's oddly comforting, that.

If you're curious, the projected increase in extremely hot days was calculated by Climate Central. The definition of extremely hot days varies depending on the baseline for that city. For example, an extremely hot day in Albuquerque would be over 100 degrees, in Boston it would be over 90 degrees.

SpareFoot bills itself as the largest online marketplace for self-storage, providing listings for self-storage units that produces articles about real estate and other topics. The company was originally a person-to-person model, similar to Airbnb, that later developed into a marketplace for self-storage.

Thanks for the new information, SpareFoot. We're really grateful for this heat reminder, we think.

>>> Image via NASA