No relief from the heat: Without air conditioning in many homes, residents in these cities swelter

Officials in Britain are bracing for the worst this week as an unprecedented heat wave is forecast to push temperatures up to 40 C (104 F) for the first time in a region that has little air conditioning. 

Millions of Americans who live in cities where air conditioning is not prevalent know the feeling. They have felt the full brunt of heat domes in recent years and the experience has sparked some conversations that the rest of the nation might take for granted. Namely: How do you provide relief from heat when many of your homes and buildings don't have AC?

Cities, including Seattle and Portland, set record highs last summer as the temperatures drifted into the triple-digits and showed local officials and experts how ill-prepared the region is for extreme heat events, according to Vivek Shandas, the founder of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab at Portland State University.

“In the Pacific Northwest, in these northern latitudes, we’re really ill-prepared and arguably most vulnerable to these heat waves coming through because we just don’t have a history of planning for it,” Shandas told Paste BN.

Only 44% of Seattle’s housing units have air-conditioning units, less than half the national average of 91%, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 American Housing Survey. That was something of an afterthought before the 2021 heat dome, Shandas said, because few had perceived the need for cooling units.

"The cities that have the least amount of air conditioning, it's often because their outside, ambient environments don't really break 90 degrees very often and historically we design a lot of infrastructure based on historical patterns of what is it that happens in an environment," Shandas added. 

More air conditioning units are not a solution to the underlying causes that contribute to climate change, scientists warn, but it can offer live-saving respite to at-risk residents who live in areas where extreme heat is not the norm.

As record-breaking temperatures continue to impact vulnerable areas around the world, here's a look at the top nine least air-conditioned cities according to the data collected by the Census Bureau's American Housing Survey. 

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Buffalo, New York

Average summer low: 62.5

Average summer high: 79.7

Percent of housing units with AC: 39%

Percent of population living in poverty: 28.3%

Percent of population 65 and older: 13%

Denver

Average summer low: 58.2

Average summer high: 88.8

Percent of housing units with AC: 85%

Percent of population living in poverty: 11.9%

Percent of population 65 and older: 11.8%

Hartford, Connecticut

Average summer low: 62.1

Average summer high: 84.1

Percent of housing units with AC: 37%

Percent of population living in poverty: 28%

Percent of population 65 and older: 11.7%

Oakland, California

Average summer low: 57.5

Average summer high: 72.9

Percent of housing units with AC: 41%

Percent of population living in poverty: 14.6%

Percent of population 65 and older: 13.4%

Providence, Rhode Island

Average summer low: 63.9

Average summer high: 82.1

Percent of housing units with AC: 24%

Percent of population living in poverty: 23%

Percent of population 65 and older: 11.6%

Portland

Average summer low: 57.6

Average summer high: 79.2

Percent of housing units with AC: 79%

Percent of population living in poverty: 13.1%

Percent of population 65 and older: 13.2%

San Francisco

Average summer low: 55.1

Average summer high: 67

Percent of housing units with AC: 47%

Percent of population living in poverty: 10.1%

Percent of population 65 and older: 15.8%

Santa-Ana, California

Average summer low: 65.2

Average summer high: 83.8

Percent of housing units with AC: 56%

Percent of population living in poverty: 13.4%

Percent of population 65 and older: 9.8%

Seattle

Average summer low: 55.9

Average summer high: 76.4 

Percent of housing units with AC: 44%

Percent of population living in poverty: 10.2%

Percent of population 65 and older: 12.5%

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