Boston’s climate change could make it feel like Baltimore in 60 years: Study

Boston’s climate will resemble that of a suburban Baltimore community called Rosedale if the pace of carbon emissions continues unabated. That is according to a snazzy new study published in the journal Nature Communications.

The study sought to illustrate the effects of climate change by showing how 540 different U.S. and Canadian cities will feel like other areas by 2080. The study’s authors examined 12 different climatic variables under two different scenarios.

In the end, it paints a picture of major changes for hundreds of millions of people, the sort of alterations not felt in living memory. On average, if carbon emissions continue apace, the 540 cities will move 528 miles south climate-wise. If emissions are curbed—and Boston is working on it—the cities move an average of 319 miles.

So, for Boston, milder winters similar to those in Maryland would replace brutal, snowy, icy ones; and summers would be really humid, and autumns presumably not as cool and foliage-filled.

You can try out the study here by plugging in different locales to see the locales they’ll resemble in 2080.

• If we don’t stop climate change, Boston will feel like Baltimore, study indicates [Globe]
• A carbon-neutral Boston by 2050 would require congestion pricing, tens of thousands of building retrofits: Report [Curbed Boston]