In 60 years, Philadelphia will be hotter and winters will be wetter – it could feel a lot like Memphis, Tennessee does now.

Fitzpatrick: “Cities like Philadelphia, Boston, New York, pick your large city in the Eastern U.S. They’re all becoming more like what we’d associate with southeastern cities today, so they’re becoming warmer in all seasons.”

Matt Fitzpatrick of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science created an interactive online map to help people understand how global warming will affect the place where they live.

You can click on cities across the country to see how temperature and precipitation are likely to change – and find out which other city’s current climate is the closest match.

Fitzpatrick: “I think it is an intuitive way to communicate climate change.”

The map shows two scenarios – one in which carbon emissions continue to rise, and another in which they start to decline by 2040. The lower pollution scenario results in impacts that are much less extreme – demonstrating the importance of climate action.

Fitzpatrick: “Hopefully that changes some minds and informs people, and they start to act accordingly.”

Reporting credit: Ariel Hansen/ChavoBart Digital Media.