PHOENIX (CBS5) -
If you think the summers feel longer and hotter, you may not be far off. A new report shows Arizona's temperatures are climbing faster than any other state.
"You think you get used to it but the older you get, the harder it is on your body," said the owner of the Orange Patch in Mesa, Allen Freeman.
Freeman spends a lot of time outside.
"You start early in the morning and you're out here all day," he said.
He's lived here his entire life and said he's noticed it getting warmer over the last few decades.
"We would spend about 15 nights out of the winter fighting frost and now maybe every 5 years I have to worry about frost," Freeman said.
It's not his imagination. A new report from Climate Central said since 1970, Arizona has been the fastest-warming state with our temperatures increasing by about .6 degrees each decade. Since 1912, we've been the fourth fastest-warming state.
One of the reasons we're getting hotter is because we've taken agricultural land and turned it into urban and suburban land using materials like concrete and asphalt that typically absorb heat.
"We also have the canyon effect, if you have buildings and the narrow areas between the buildings, the heat kind of bounces around at night," said Dr. Nancy Selover, our state's climatologist.
She said Arizona has to rethink the materials we use to build because if it keeps going at this pace, it could strain its resources.
We asked her why it stays so warm at night, too, and she said materials like asphalt and concrete hold in heat and the night is just not long enough for them to cool down.
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Allen Freeman of Mesa has lived in the Valley his entire life and said he's noticed it getting warmer over the last few decades.
State climatologist Dr. Nancy Selover said Arizona has to rethink the materials we use to build because if it keeps going at this pace, it could strain its resources.
