--- title: Climate Change: See How It's Affected Your Weather description: The good weather won't last forever canonical: https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-04-20T17:00:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-30T12:05:52.666Z article:section: Science og:title: See How Much Nicer Climate Change Has Made Your Weather og:description: And why that's a problem og:url: https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How Much Nicer Climate Change Has Made Your Weather twitter:description: And why that's a problem twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # See How Much Nicer Climate Change Has Made Your Weather—And Why That's a Problem by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/) and [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) Apr 20, 2016 5:00 PM CUT by [Justin Worland](/author/justin-worland/) and [David Johnson](/author/dave-johnson/) Apr 20, 2016 5:00 PM CUT Listen to the scientists and global warming sounds scary—choking heat, flooded cities and crippling drought. But new [research](http://nature.com/articles/doi:10.1038/nature17441 "undefined") in the journal _Nature_ shows that weather in the U.S. has actually improved in the past several decades for 80% of Americans, thanks in part to warming. That’s nice if you like outdoor picnics and snowless winters, but it’s a [huge problem](http://ti.me/1MDTo6f "undefined") for the people tasked with finding solutions to stem global warming and communicating them to the public. Political scientists say that Americans are less likely to see climate change as potentially catastrophic if it actually improves weather in the short-term. But the good weather won’t last forever. Researchers found that nearly 90% of Americans will live in places where the weather will worsen by the end of the century. And that’s not to mention the climate-related [natural disasters](http://time.com/4255428/climate-change-extreme-weather/ "undefined") expected in the coming decades. Search your county in the map below and see how your weather has changed since the 1970s. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/"},"headline":"See How Much Nicer Climate Change Has Made Your Weather—And Why That's a Problem","datePublished":"2016-04-20T17:00:16.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-30T12:05:52.666Z","description":"The good weather won't last forever","url":"https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/","keywords":["climate change","weather"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"David Johnson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/dave-johnson/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/climate-change/","name":"climate change"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4299916/climate-change-pleasant-weather-map/","name":"See How Much Nicer Climate Change Has Made Your Weather—And Why That's a Problem"}}]}] ```