Technologies

Gift card scams are growing, and we’re all paying the price

Every year, scammers trick Americans into handing over millions of dollars in gift card payments. Retailers aren’t doing much about it.

The scams start out innocently enough.

Maybe a phone call from someone who says he works for Amazon, claiming he noticed someone hacked into your account. Maybe someone who says she works for Microsoft, offering a refund for a computer security service you bought a few years ago that stopped working.

Lisa Hernandez was trying to reach Match.com, the dating site, to cancel her account when it happened to her. The 50-year-old single mother of four had signed up for the service but decided she didn’t want to stay with it.

She searched on Google for a customer service number to call. What she found instead was a fake website, built to look legitimate but with a phone number that connected her to a scammer posing as Match customer service. Kevin, the man on the other end of the line, said he could help. First, though, he told her she needed to install a program called TeamViewer, which allowed him remote control of her computer.

He then directed Hernandez to log into her bank’s website. «We’re going to directly refund you your money,» he promised and asked her to fill out a computer-generated form for her refund of $93. Instead, Kevin set his scam in motion by manipulating the code on her computer to make it look like he had deposited $9,000 into her bank account instead, effectively doubling her savings.

The only way to fix the mistake, he told her, was to buy gift cards with the extra money she’d received and give him the numbers. Then he could put the money back into Match’s bank accounts and all would be settled. «I need you to go to the store to get Target cards,» she remembers him saying. Otherwise, he’d lose his job. She did as he asked, giving him nearly $9,000 worth of gift cards.

Moments just like this happen to tens of millions of Americans every year. While it’s easy to assume most victims are elderly, surveys suggest it’s much broader. Victims are old and young, rich and poor. Some people get scammed multiple times. Some victims have family members who fight fraud for a living. It’s struck my family. Likely, it’s happened to yours, too.

When you think of computer crimes, identity theft usually comes first to mind. That’s because it cost Americans a staggering $56 billion last year, according to Javelin Strategy and Research. But it tends to feel more like an inconvenience than theft, because you usually get your money back thanks to a nearly half-century-old law designed to protect consumers from any «unauthorized» credit charges. The fees we pay help cover the losses to that fraud. But it’s different with gift cards — they have no such legal protections. When a victim shares the card number with a scammer, they’ve effectively authorized its use. Even identity fraud insurance, which would cover ID theft in the case of a data breach, often doesn’t apply when you’ve given the information willingly.

«If someone coerces you, then you’re out of luck,» said Kathy Stokes, director of fraud prevention programs at AARP.

It’s impossible to fathom how much money these scammers have taken. Many victims don’t report the crime to authorities, often because they’re embarrassed and quickly learn the hard truth that they’re unlikely to get their money back. So when the Federal Trade Commission counted more than $245 million in money lost to gift card scams since 2018, most experts said the actual number is likely many multiples worse than that.

«This is only the tip of the iceberg,» said John Breyault, vice president for public policy, telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League.

The anecdotal data suggests he’s right. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, for example, said it receives more than 2,000 complaints each day about all sorts of internet scams, from fraudulent business impersonation to fake romances to gift card scams. All told, the FBI tallied $4.2 billion in fraud losses reported by victims last year.

Some stores put up signs next to gift card racks and checkout counters warning about fraud. Others say they’re training employees to spot potential victims. But they aren’t doing much else. «The business incentive in the gift card space is for these cards to be used with as little friction as possible,» Breyault said. «They don’t want to get into the way of someone buying a gift card and buying a Coke on the way out.»

From gift to fraud

The gift card industry is already larger than the gross domestic product of all but a handful of countries. It’s still growing, too, and surveys suggest its use is pretty evenly split along racial, gender and economic lines.

By 2027, gift card spending is expected to reach $2.7 trillion — topping all but the US, China, Japan, Germany and the UK. That’s already up from $1 trillion in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic supercharged consumer spending, according to Research and Markets. And this year, as a congested global supply chain is causing a shortage of some popular gifts, more than one in five people plan to use gift cards when shopping during the holidays, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by CNET parent company Red Ventures.

Retailers love gift cards, too. They get to hold onto any money we don’t spend for years, industry experts say. And when we do use up our gift cards, we tend to buy things more expensive than the gift card can cover, a term some companies internally call «up-spend.» So retailers try to make gift cards as easy to buy as they can. You can find all manner of gift cards for all sorts of things at drug stores, convenience shops and grocery chains.

After reading the FTC’s data last year, Stokes at AARP set out to take on gift card scams. In April, the organization began a three-year program to throw its educational and marketing weight behind the problem, and for good reason. One study it commissioned found that a quarter of US adults were unsure whether it’s a sign of a scam for a business to ask for payment in gift cards, something no legitimate business would do. AARP also built up parts of its website, Fraud Watch Network, publishing articles about the scams and examples of the scripts they use, and it expanded its fraud hotline with hopes of helping victims spot a scam as it’s happening.

So far, things haven’t gone as she’d hoped. «We thought it would be an easy message,» she said. But it turns out most of the people who end up coming to AARP for help do so after they’ve been scammed.

People like Hernandez. She got in touch after she was scammed in August. Though she’s accepted that the money’s mostly gone, she can’t shake how violating the whole experience was. As a nurse in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hernandez built her career on trust. She works a second job as a caregiver too, where she’s regularly given her client’s bank card to withdraw money from an account or buy stuff from the store. «I would never think of taking from them,» Hernandez says. «I would never betray that.»

Which is maybe why she trusted Kevin, who was begging her to buy gift cards. Hernandez spent $3,500 on seven Target cards, then withdrew another $5,000 to buy more. As she gave him the card numbers, Kevin told her not to look at her bank account for a couple days. She did anyway and found that the extra money he’d manipulated the bank webpage to show in her account was gone. Instead, she had just about $500 balance left.

Kevin called her again, saying one of the $500 cards didn’t go through. When she began to ask questions, one of Kevin’s colleagues got on the phone and began yelling at her. As they kept demanding Hernandez get more gift cards, the horrible realization dawned on her. «I said, ‘You just took my money.'»

New twist

The confidence game, as some call it, has been around since ancient times. Con artists are even in the Bible where they’re referred to as false prophets, «who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.» Scammers are the reason we all bristle about snake oil, the fake cure-all elixir sold in the 18th century and 19th century, born from supposedly old Chinese medicinal techniques.

To be successful, a con artist typically needs to be charismatic, quick-witted and intelligent. After all, they have to be good at gaining people’s confidence.

«It exploits people’s trust,» Cathy Scott, a true crime author, wrote in Psychology Today. «Even the most rational people have proven susceptible to crimes of trickery.»

The internet’s anonymity and quick communication helped to supercharge fraud. Gift card scammers can come from all over the world, too. All they need is a mic and an easily downloaded phone app installed on their computer. The phone app hides their location behind a toll-free number or a seemingly local US one.

The scam that victimized Hernandez isn’t the only one out there. A scammer might pretend to be an FBI agent, calling with a warrant for your arrest. They might pose as an IRS agent threatening to cancel your Social Security number for some offense of which you’re innocent. In those schemes, the only way to stop the police supposedly coming to your door is with the help of another scammer who pretends to be a lawyer, conveniently a phone call away, who takes payment in gift cards.

Sometimes the scammers pretend to be tech support, calling to repair your printer. Or they say your internet is hacked and then get you to install screen-sharing software like TeamViewer or AnyDesk to show technical gobbledygook that they say is proof the hackers have taken over. You just need to buy security, they say, with gift cards.

«Scammers know if they make it emotional and create this sense of urgency and fear, the logical part of your brain disconnects and the fight-or-flight kicks in — which is great for protecting you, but it’s terrible at making decisions,» said Eva Velasquez, head of the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center, and a former law enforcement investigator of economic and financial crimes.

Her team’s research found that if you can interrupt that emotional response, the logical side has a chance to kick in. That’s partly why retailers have put signs up at gift card racks, warning about potential fraud. «Have you been asked to buy gift cards to pay a fine, taxes, fees or to help someone?» one sign at a Giant grocery store in Maryland reads. «Never provide numbers to ANYONE over the phone or by email.»

Still, Velasquez said, scams of all sorts have become even more prevalent during the pandemic. «It’s been growing and growing, and the explosion over the last 18 months is unprecedented,» she said. «It’s going to take at least a decade to unwind and get to the bottom of how big a problem it is.»

Trust betrayed

One of the first things Mark told me when recounting his experience being scammed was how bad it made him feel. It had only happened a few weeks earlier, in October, and it still stung. He requested his full name be withheld to avoid embarrassment with his family.

The call from the scammers started out seemingly normal. The person calling claimed to be from Amazon, concerned about a rogue $750 purchase with his credit card.

The person on the other end of the phone claimed Amazon had already stopped the supposed charge but asked Mark to buy gift cards that they could use as bait to track down scammers. Once all the scammers were caught, Mark was told, they’d give the gift cards back.

«Dumb me, I believed that,» he said.

Mark is in his 70s and retired after a successful career as crew for some of the most memorable summer blockbuster films from the 1990s. But he says he’s not computer savvy. «I have trouble getting along on it,» he said. «I mostly use it to play puzzles and stuff.»

At first, the scammers asked Mark to buy $3,000 in gift cards from Target and Apple. If a store employee asked why he was spending so much money, the scammers told him to say the cards were gifts for a party.

Retailers have a blind spot for situations like Mark’s. The companies have sophisticated software and entire teams devoted to detecting customers who are trying to scam them. But when a customer comes in, buying gift cards, «the retailers are learning it’s very difficult to track,» said David Fletcher, senior vice president at ClearSale, which helps detect fraud at the online stores of more than 4,000 merchants, including Motorola, Under Armour and Bath & Body Works.

That’s why some retailers train employees to ask probing questions at checkout. Best Buy, in a statement, said it’s also added warning signs to gift card displays and checkout counters. Its systems flash a warning on the credit card reader screen when customers purchase gift cards above a certain limit.

But it still isn’t enough. Fletcher himself became a victim when scammers emptied a $100 gift card his mother had bought for the fishing store Bass Pro Shops. He suspects scammers took photos of the account codes on the back of cards while they were still on the rack and waited until they were activated.

«Gift cards are so hard to trace back to fraudsters,» he said.

Not that any of the questions the clerk asked Mark made any difference.

At his first stop, the teller would only let him buy a couple cards, at $500 each. «It was kind of a surprise,» he said of the limit. In retrospect, he appreciates it now.

But the scammers convinced Mark to go to more stores. Mark remembers checkout clerks asking what the cards were for a couple times. The scammers kept asking Mark for more money until he became suspicious and checked the value on the Target cards he had purchased. That’s when he learned most of the money was gone.

When Mark contacted the police, they took down his information but didn’t ask for the phone numbers the scammers called from. Experts say it’s nearly impossible to track fraudsters through their numbers anyway. Instead, the police suggested Mark contact AARP for support and also to help guide him through reporting and other things to do. His bank, from which he’d ultimately withdrawn $5,000, declined to refund his losses.

«I feel so stupid about the whole thing,» he said.

Like Hernandez, the nurse, Mark hopes that sharing his story will help people learn some of the tricks the scammers use and avoid the same mistakes he made.

While Mark said his savings are enough to cover the losses he suffered, the fraudsters made off with nearly all of Hernandez’s money. And she gave up getting a refund from Match too.

«It’s tough and embarrassing, and I feel kind of dumb,» Hernandez said, adding that she tends to keep the tough things that happen in her life to herself, though eventually she did tell some details to her kids. «I had to go and pray a lot.»

She also decided she’s going to stay away from dating for now. But she did have one last confrontation with Kevin, who promised to make it better.

Hernandez was desperate to get her money back, but she was also upset. «I don’t know how you can do this to people,» she remembers saying. Kevin asked for her address and ended the conversation saying he’d send her the money in the mail. She hoped his conscience might have changed him.

She hasn’t heard from Kevin since.

The story continues Friday, when we look at efforts to fight back at the scammers.

Technologies

Get Ready for a Striking Aurora That Could Also Disrupt Radio Communications

Don’t expect the storm to cause a lingering problem, though.

A geomagnetic storm is threatening radio communications Monday night, but that doesn’t mean you should be concerned. In fact, it may be an opportunity to see a colorful aurora in the night sky.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has issued a geomagnetic storm watch after witnessing a coronal mass ejection from the sun on Saturday. The watch, which was issued over the weekend and will expire after Monday, said the onset of the storm passing over Earth on Sunday night represented a «moderate» threat to communications. As the storm continues to pass through, it could deliver a «strong» threat on Monday night that could cause radio communications to be temporarily disrupted during the worst of it.

Even so, NOAA said, «the general public should not be concerned.»

A coronal mass ejection occurs when magnetic field and plasma mass are violently expelled from the sun’s corona, or the outermost portion of the sun’s atmosphere. In the vast majority of cases, the ejection occurs with no real threat to Earth. However, in the event the ejection happens in the planet’s direction, a geomagnetic storm occurs, and the Earth’s magnetic field is temporarily affected.

In most cases, geomagnetic storms cause little to no disruption on Earth, with radio communications and satellites affected most often. In extreme cases, a geomagnetic storm can cause significant and potentially life-threatening power outages — a prospect that, luckily, the planet hasn’t faced.

Switching poles

Every 11 years, the sun’s magnetic poles switch, with the north pole and south pole swapping positions. During those cycles, the sun’s activity ramps up as it gets closer to pole-switching time. The height of its activity is called solar maximum, and scientists believe we either may be entering the solar maximum or may be already in it.

During periods of heightened solar activity, sunspots increase on the sun and there’s an increase in coronal mass ejections, among other phenomena. According to NOAA, solar maximum could extend into October of this year before the sun’s activity calms and it works towards its less-active phase, solar minimum.

Even when geomagnetic storms hit Earth and disrupt communications, the effects are usually short-lived. Those most affected, including power grid operators and pilots and air traffic controllers communicating over long distances, have fail-safe technologies and backup communications to ensure operational continuity.

But geomagnetic storms aren’t only about radios. In most cases, they also present unique opportunities to see auroras in the night sky. When the storms hit, the plasma they carry creates a jaw-dropping aurora, illuminating the night sky with brilliant colors. Those auroras can be especially pronounced during the most intense phases of the storm, making for nice stargazing.

If you’re interested in seeing the aurora, you’ll need to be ready. The NOAA said the «brunt of the storm has passed» and even if it lingers into Tuesday, there won’t be much to see after Monday night.

Technologies

Last Total Solar Eclipse for 20 Years Is Coming: How to See and Photograph It

It’s your last chance until 2044.

Get your eclipse glasses ready, Skygazers: the Great American Eclipse is on its way. On April 8, there’ll be a total eclipse over North America, the last one until 2044.

A total solar eclipse happens when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, blocking the sun and turning an otherwise sunny day to darkness for a short period of time. Depending on the angle at which you’re viewing the eclipse, you may see the sun completely shrouded by the moon (called totality) or some variation of it. The more off-angle you are and the further you are from the path of the eclipse, the less likely you’ll be to see the totality.

The 2024 total solar eclipse will happen on Monday, April 8. The Great American Eclipse will reach the Mexican Pacific coast at 11:07 a.m. PT (2:07 p.m. ET), and then traverse the US in a northeasterly direction from Texas to Maine, and on into easternmost Canada. If you want a good look at it, but don’t live in the path of totality, you shouldn’t wait much longer to book accommodation and travel to a spot on the path.

Or how about booking a seat in the sky? Delta Airlines made headlines for offering a flight that allows you to see the entire path of totality. Its first eclipse flight, from Austin, Texas, to Detroit sold out quickly. But as of Monday, Delta has added a second flight from Dallas to Detroit, which also covers the path of totality. The airline also has five flights that will offer prime eclipse viewing.

Not everyone can get on one of those elusive eclipse-viewing flights. Here’s a look at other options to nab a chance to see this rare sight and what to know about it.

Total solar eclipse path

The eclipse will cross over the Pacific coast of Mexico and head northeast over mainland Mexico. The eclipse will then make its way over San Antonio at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET on April 8 and move through Texas, over the southeastern part of Oklahoma and northern Arkansas by 2:50 p.m. ET.

By 3 p.m. ET, the eclipse will be over southern Illinois, and just 5 minutes later, will be traveling over Indianapolis. Folks in northwestern Ohio will be treated to the eclipse by 3:15 p.m. ET, and it will then travel over Lake Erie and Buffalo, New York, by 3:20 p.m. ET. Over the next 10 minutes, the eclipse will be seen over northern New York state, then over Vermont. By 3:35 p.m. ET, the eclipse will work its way into Canada and off the Eastern coast of North America.

Best places to watch the Great American Eclipse

When evaluating the best places to watch this year’s total eclipse, you’ll first want to determine where you’ll have the best angle to see the totality. The farther off-angle you are — in other words, the farther north or south of the eclipse’s path — the less of an impact you can expect.

Therefore, if you want to have the best chance of experiencing the eclipse, you’ll want to be in its path. As of this writing, most of the cities in the eclipse’s path have some hotel availability, but recent reports have suggested that rooms are booking up. And as more rooms are booked, prices are going up.

So if you want to be in the eclipse’s path, and need a hotel to do it, move fast. And Delta’s eclipse-viewing flight from Dallas to Detroit has just four seats left at the time of publication.

Eclipse eye safety and photography

As with any solar eclipse, it’s critical you keep eye safety in mind.

During the eclipse, and especially during the periods before and after totality, don’t look directly at the sun without special eye protection. Also, be sure not to look at the sun through a camera (including the camera on your phone), binoculars, a telescope or any other viewing device. This could cause serious eye injury. Sunglasses aren’t enough to protect your eyes from damage.

If you want to view the eclipse, you’ll instead need solar viewing glasses that comply with the ISO 12312-2 safety standard. Anything that doesn’t meet that standard or greater won’t be dark enough to protect your eyes. Want to get them for free? If you’ve got a Warby Parker eyeglasses store nearby, the company is giving away free, ISO-certified solar eclipse glasses at all of its stores from April 1 until the eclipse, while supplies last.

If you don’t have eclipse viewing glasses handy, you can instead use indirect methods for viewing the eclipse, like a pinhole projector.

Read more: A Photographer’s Adventure With the Eclipse

In the event you want to take pictures of the eclipse, attach a certified solar filter to your camera. Doing so will protect your eyes and allow you to take photos while you view the eclipse through your lens.

There’s also a new app to help you both protect your eyes and take better photos of the eclipse on your phone. Solar Snap, designed by a former Hubble Space Telescope astronomer, comes with a Solar Snap camera filter that attaches to the back of an iPhone or Android phone, along with solar eclipse glasses for protecting your eyesight during the event. After you attach the filter to your phone, you can use the free Solar Snap Eclipse app to zoom in on the eclipse, adjust exposure and other camera settings, and ultimately take better shots of the eclipse.

2024 eclipse compared to 2017

The last total solar eclipse occurred in 2017, and many Americans had a great view. Although there are plenty of similarities between the 2017 total solar eclipse and the one coming April 8, there are a handful of differences. Mainly, the 2024 eclipse is going to cover more land and last longer.

The 2017 eclipse started over the northwest US and moved southeast. Additionally, that eclipse’s path was up to 71 miles wide, compared with a maximum width of 122 miles for this year’s eclipse. Perhaps most importantly, the moon completely covered the sun for just 2 minutes, 40 seconds in 2017. This year, maximum totality will last for nearly four-and-a-half minutes.

Technologies

Wild Weather Ahead: Here’s How 2024 Is Shaping Up After the Hottest Year on Record

The climate crisis is impacting communities around the world. Here’s what to know about dealing with extreme weather in 2024.

We just lived through the hottest year since recordkeeping began more than a century ago, but before too long when we look back at 2023, it might not stand out as the pinnacle of extreme heat.

That’s because it’s unlikely to be the only hottest year that we experience. Our climate is changing, growing warmer due to the emissions from burning fossil fuels, and our weather is changing with it. It’s possible that this year may turn out to be hotter still.

In March, scientists from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said February 2024 was the hottest February according to records that stretch back to 1940. The news came on the heels of their report in early January that, as expected, 2023 was indeed the hottest year on record. Temperatures closed in on the critical 1.5-degree Celsius rise above preindustrial levels, after which we will see irreversible damage to the planet. These aren’t freak outliers: The extreme heat we’re experiencing is something we’ll need to be prepared to deal with on a much more regular basis, along with storms, floods and drought.

Later in March, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its spring outlook, predicting that most of the continental US and Alaska will see above-average temperatures from April through June. The risk of flooding, it said, will ease during the three-month period because of «historically low winter snow cover» in large parts of the country.

A key trend highlighted by the US government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, published in November, was that climate change is provoking extreme weather events across the country that are both more frequent and more severe. It pointed to an increase in heatwaves and wildfires in the West over the past few decades, the increased drought risk in the Southwest over the past century and more extreme rainfall east of the Rockies. Hurricanes have also been intensifying, as those who have found themselves in the path of a storm know all too well.

You’ll need to be prepared. Extreme weather is going to have a widespread impact on industry, society and individuals. Last year in the US there were 25 extreme weather events with losses amounting to over $1 billion that resulted in the deaths of 464 people. People lost their homes, saw personal property damaged or suffered mental and physical health issues.

Three months into 2024, we’re staring down the barrel of another potentially record-setting hot year. If there’s a silver lining, it’s that the US is now better prepared than ever and we know what steps you can take to better deal with these unwelcome events. When it comes to weather, forewarned is forearmed.

The US has been taking active steps. The Biden administration has provided funding to build resilient communities, and a new (as of September 2023) National Climate Resilience Framework, which should provide the US with a whole range of protections. These include conserving water resources, modernizing and strengthening the electric grid against weather and disasters and building infrastructure to protect communities and ecosystems from sea level rise, tidal flooding, hurricanes and storm surges.

At home and in your community, you can take steps, too, including preparing your home for wildfires and flooding and recognizing signs of heat-related health issues. This way, when wild weather comes calling, its impact on our homes, health and livelihoods is minimized.

Forecast 2024

Last year’s heat was no anomaly. It’s part of a long-term trend: The last 10 years have been the 10 warmest on record, according to NASA, with most of the Earth’s warming taking place over the last 40 years. Most forecasters are anticipating yet another year of extreme heat ahead.

«If we look at the forecast for the next three months in the long range, it’s suggesting that the trend that we’re seeing in baseline warming could continue, and so 2024 could rival 2023 for being the hottest year on record, which is very scary,» says Chloe Brimicombe, a heatwave researcher at the University of Graz.

Some of the extreme weather we experienced in the latter half of last year and will continue to experience in the first half of this year is a result of El Niño, a cyclical climate event that sees unusually warm ocean waters that has a knock-on effect of warmer temperatures and increased rainfall across the southern part of the US. For instance, temperatures in Death Valley, California, peaked at 128 degrees Fahrenheit in July, while forecasters predicted warmer temperatures in northern parts of the US stretching into February and a colder, wetter winter for Southern states.

While meteorologists are able to make long-term predictions about El Niño, other climate-related predictions are trickier. «All things told, we’re going to see an increased prevalence of heat events across the globe, but we can’t tell right now exactly where that will be,» says Andy Hoell, a climate scientist at NOAA.

What we do know, he adds, is that the climate crisis can compound events such as extreme heat or extreme rainfall to make them more likely or more severe.

In the past, it wasn’t always easy to draw direct links between extreme weather events and climate change. But huge improvements in attribution science (the ability to specifically identify emissions as the cause for unusually dramatic weather) in recent years have changed the game. The World Weather Attribution program, based at Imperial College London, has now completed nine studies on droughts, heatwaves, wildfires and heavy rainfall in North America. «Every study found that climate change made the event more intense and more likely,» says Ben Clarke, a researcher at WWA.

The speed at which climate scientists are able to identify human-caused climate change as the culprit for extreme weather has also dramatically improved. Last year alone, Climate Central was able to attribute record-breaking spring heat in the western US, and ongoing extreme heat stretching through the summer in Texas and Florida, to climate change as it was happening. «It’s much more impactful as far as our understanding of what climate change really is if we can make that connection in real time,» says Andrew Pershing, vice president of science at Climate Central, a climate science analysis non-profit.

Thanks to attribution science, we can confidently point to a heatwave we’ve experienced and say whether climate change played a role in making it happen. But it also helps us to recognize that extreme weather events we’re experiencing are part of a pattern – one that can’t be broken without tackling the root causes of the climate crisis. «Until the world moves away from fossil fuels and reduces emissions to net zero,» says Clarke, «extreme weather events in North America will continue to become more intense, more dangerous and more deadly.»

Even if you live in a region that hasn’t yet directly been impacted by a climate-linked weather event, you’re not off the hook.

«As the climate continues to warm, most areas will be at an increased risk of some types of climate-linked extreme weather,» says Russell Vose, chief of the Monitoring and Assessment Branch at NOAA’ National Centers for Environmental Information and one of the NCA’s authors. «Perhaps the best example is extreme heat – it can occur anywhere.»

He points to the scorching heat dome that descended on the Pacific Northwest in June and July 2021, which was unprecedented in the historical record. The unpredictable nature of such extreme heat means no regions are marked as safe.

In fact, a region that’s been lucky enough to not yet experience an extreme heat event is more likely to experience one in the future and suffer more greatly due to lack of preparedness, according to a study published by scientists from Bristol University last April.

Scientists are more concerned about the ability of people in areas that don’t usually get intensely hot to cope when their turn comes. «What worries me would be something in the Upper Midwest or the Northeast that just hasn’t had a major heat event for a few years,» says Pershing. «I think we kind of lose a little bit of that muscle memory.»

Weather’s unequal impacts

The weather might not discriminate when it comes to who gets hit, but that doesn’t mean its impacts are experienced equally by all groups across American society.

«Certain groups are simply more vulnerable to extreme events due to geographic, socioeconomic or demographic factors,» says Vose. He points to the extreme rainfall brought by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which led to a large number of homes being flooded in Harris County, Texas, with a disproportionate impact on low-income Hispanic neighborhoods.

When a heatwave hits, it will feel hotter in high-density urban environments that are more likely to be occupied by people of color or people living in poverty than in more spread-out neighborhoods or rural areas. Then some are homeless and can’t access health care. They have little ability to protect themselves, no matter how much warning they get about an incoming heatwave. This makes these groups much more vulnerable to the health risks of extreme heat.

Heat researchers are extremely concerned about people who live in housing not resistant to warm temperatures, says Brimicombe, who points out that those who rent are especially at risk. «If you’re a tenant, you have less ability to adapt your house to extreme heat than if you’re a homeowner,» she says. «And that also means young families, because babies are vulnerable to extreme heat.»

Not only are economically disadvantaged communities in the US more susceptible to feeling the worst impacts of extreme weather, but they have also done the least to contribute towards the climate crisis in the first place. A study published last August revealed that the wealthiest households in the US are historically responsible for 40% of the country’s climate emissions.

Meanwhile, these same households have more tools at their disposal to protect themselves from the impact of climate-related weather events. In 2019, The New York Times reported that wealthy California residents were banding together to hire private firefighters to protect them from the impacts of wildfires.

The Biden administration is well aware that marginalized and minority groups are hardest hit by climate change, including extreme weather. At the beginning of his term, the president set up the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, made up of leading experts from the US climate justice community.

Last September the group published its policy recommendations urging the government to ensure climate disasters do not further or exacerbate harm to vulnerable populations and communities.

«Disaster relief should never be the cause of deepening inequality in any neighborhood, region, or Tribal community,» the council wrote in its recommendations. «When disaster hits, the goal of government should be that the people hit the hardest should emerge stronger and more secure than before, not the opposite.»

It recommended a number of measures that would help protect people in case of extreme weather including the creation of a low-cost national flood insurance and the establishment of a «Just Relocation Fund» that would provide communities hit by climate impacts with a relocation process based on a dignity framework with respect for their human rights.

The White House has yet to respond to the recommendations, but if it does act on them this would hopefully prevent a repeat of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, in which Black communities were allocated less money to rebuild their housing, resulting in a lawsuit against the federal government.

Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and other initiatives, the Biden administration is investing heavily in adaptation, mitigation and resilience measures designed to protect all Americans from the impacts of climate-linked extreme weather. As with all funding, people may have to wait some time to feel the full impact of that funding. In the meantime, there are a number of steps you can take to keep yourself safe in the months ahead.

How to weather the weather, whatever the weather

Summer’s not so far off, meaning sizzling days are on the horizon.

Intense heat poses some scary risks to our health, including heat cramps, heat exhaustion and heat stroke, which can be life-threatening. It’s important to familiarize yourself with the signs so that you’ll recognize them in yourself and others, and can therefore seek medical attention if necessary.

Remember that heat is more likely to adversely affect older people, children and babies, and those with preexisting health conditions. There may be cooling centers or other well-air-conditioned places in your community where you can take refuge – if you do, consider taking elderly or vulnerable neighbors with you. «Look out for friends and families,» said Brimicombe. «Don’t be complacent.»

The British writer and fellwalker Alfred Wainwright is widely credited as coining the phrase, «there’s no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing.» Wainwright, who died in 1991, didn’t live through the kind of consistently bad weather we’re experiencing in this era of extreme heat, but that doesn’t mean we have nothing to learn from him. In the midst of a heatwave, it’s best to wear loose-fitting clothes in light colors, rather than black, which absorbs the heat.

Make sure you stay hydrated and try to spend as little time as possible outside in the sun. Try to block sunlight from warming your house, and consider buying reflectors to place in your windows that can help keep the heat out. At nighttime, take note of when it might be cooler outside than in, and use this to your advantage by opening doors and windows to let the internal temperature of your house regulate. Fans can be effective, but at very high temperatures they’re likely to just start pushing the hot air around – in which case you should, sparingly and without putting too much pressure on the grid, resort to air conditioning, or moving to your local cooling center.

Remember that global warming is worldwide, so the same heat warnings apply even if you plan to travel to other parts of the world over the summer. The heat waves that hit the US in the summer of 2023 also impacted areas of Europe, including popular vacation spots in the Mediterranean. Countries including Greece, Spain and Italy were all affected by wildfires that resulted in the evacuation of locals and tourists alike from some areas and islands.

The surge in Europe-bound American tourists that occurred in 2023 is expected to continue this year, but if you’re planning to be among them it’s important not to travel without comprehensive insurance. Likewise, if you’re traveling in the peak months of July and August, be prepared to adjust your itinerary in case of extreme heat to ensure you’re not putting your health at risk. This may mean spending more time indoors than you’d planned for the sake of your health.

For other types of extreme weather that may hit your property such as wildfires, storms or floods, it may be useful to have an evacuation plan. You should prepare an emergency evacuation bag, also known as a go bag or a bug-out bag. Don’t forget to plan for your pets. The National Fire Protection Association has a handy guide on how to prepare your home for wildfires.

One of the easiest but most important things you can do is keep an eye on long- and short-term weather forecasts. The silver lining for people in the US, says Pershing, is that the country has great weather forecasting capabilities and the channels to communicate incoming events to people so you can prepare. «The gaps are really whether you take it seriously yourself,» he says.

So for anyone who does take it seriously, be sure to read our tips on how to prepare yourself and your home for wildfires, hurricanes, floods and storms.

Here are some additional resources: