Jacob Wycoff in his WBZ/CBS Boston (CBS-B) article titled “Boston’s extreme heat is the new normal in Boston? What is 102 degrees telling us about climate change,” Jacob Wycoff claims that Boston’s recent heat waves are symptom of climate change and the “new normal.” [emphasis, links added]
This is misleading.
In fact, long-term temperature records do not support the notion that heat waves in Boston or the United States are becoming increasingly intense or more frequent.
Historical weather data show that Boston’s extreme calorie events are neither unprecedented nor evidence of a climate emergency. The broader climate record does not support the idea that the hot days of June proved systematic climate change.
“What was 'unusual' in the past was quickly becoming our new normal,” Wycoff wrote. “And if we don't take the speed to warm, this heat will be expected.
“If greenhouse gas emissions remain unrestricted, the average summer high in Boston could rise by 9 degrees to 2100 degrees,” Wycoff said.
Wycoff's story, like the mainstream media's stories about climate change, facilitates the prediction of speculative models while ignoring real-world data and opposite trends.
It's a familiar strategy: choose the most aggressive, worst emission scenarios and see it as fate. Calmate Central is a number of sources for CBS-B stories, such as using RCP 8.5-based computer model projection.
As mentioned above Climate RealismEven the intergovernmental group of Intergovernmental Climate Change (IPCC), has restored recovery from the emphasis on RCP 8.5 as a possible avenue, as it is recognised that it is incredible if not impossible.
This framework of climate alertism in basic situations: A frequent heat wave like Boston just happened before recent carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, usually the result of local urbanization effects rather than global climate trends.
Let's start with the basic fact that the heat in Boston has been very hot lately, but far from unprecedented. Boston hit a record 102 degrees on June 24, 2025, according to the National Weather Service.
But historical data show that Boston encountered very high temperatures as early as modern climate anxiety. Boston had a temperature of 100 times in June, and on June 6, 1925, global warming for 100 years.
In July 1911, the highest temperature recorded in Boston was 104°F, followed by July 103°F. The city also saw a temperature of 102°F in 1911, 1975 and 1977. You can see these high points in the following figure, the latest updates in the figure below.
So, as Wycoff said, if the recently increased atmospheric carbon dioxide is responsible for this “new normal” How do these even hotter events occur when carbon dioxide levels are lower? In this case, his narrative collapsed.
So, no, the extremely high calories are no The new normal in Boston. This is part of a long period intermittent pattern of hot weather events. The calories experienced in June 2025 didn’t even break Boston’s record. This is just the hottest June One day since 1872 is not the hottest sky once.
The new Boston heat wave is not an extended heat wave either. In June 1872, Boston experienced eight days of temperatures above 90°F.
Boston also experienced 100 degrees temperatures for several days in July 1911, which was a heat wave, which was even more extreme than the heat wave the city experienced in June 2025.
The fact that the 1911 incident caused many deaths in the Northeast was proven before climate change became the default explanation of the hot spell every summer.
The CBS-B article quotes the Calimate Central that Boston has risen 2 degrees overnight summer temperatures in Boston over the past 50 years.
However, this trend is almost certainly affected by the famous Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect, which causes cities to retain more heat, especially overnight due to heat-absorbing infrastructure such as asphalt, concrete and buildings. This is not a climate crisis; it is local urbanization.
The UHI effect is well documented and is a large part of local warming in urban centers. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) acknowledges “Cities tend to be warmer than rural areas, especially at night, as buildings, roads and other infrastructure absorb heat during the day and slowly release it after the sun sets.”
Like most major metropolitan areas, Boston has achieved significant growth in the last century. The city's population has increased significantly over the past 70 years.
As more and more people bring more houses, buildings, streets, bridges, concrete, black roofs, machinery and intensive development, all of which lead to higher temperatures.
The rise in temperature is not a global phenomenon that plays out on the corner of Boston, it is a localized urbanization phenomenon.
Furthermore, the idea that climate change is the “six times more” of hot days that make Boston “six times more” is based on predictions from computer models, rather than measuring trends.
CBS-B relies heavily on climate change indexes at the climate center, a modeled estimate rather than a direct measurement of climate impact.
These types of attribution rely on climate models repeatedly displayed by climate realism, which always exaggerates future warming compared to observed reality.
Dr. Roy Spencer's research shows that most climate models overestimate warming up to 50% compared to satellite data.
What CBS-B has not mentioned is that heat-related deaths in the United States have been declining rather than increasing. Thanks to modern air conditioning, improving health care and public awareness, society is more resilient to heat than it was a century ago.
According to research published in 2022 The Lancetcold weather is still much larger than the number of people killed by heat.
The CBS-B story is a classic example of lazy climate reporting. It can pick the recent temperature, ignore weather history for over a century, and repeat the key points of the activist conversation without challenges. CBS-B's failure to perform basic fact checks leads to a shockingly misleading story.
This story is an example of the “news” type that erodes the public’s trust in journalists and mainstream media.
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