Weather Insider: We’re using more energy to cool our schools

It's that time of year when students head back to the classroom! Thanks to warming temperatures, however, it's getting harder and harder to keep students and teachers cool in school. More energy is being used by schools to cool off their buildings. One of the ways we can calculate this is by tracking cooling degree days.

Cooling degree days indirectly show us the cooling (or heating) demand for an area on a given day. It's based on the concept that no heating or cooling would be needed if it is 65°F. If the average temperature for a day is greater than 65, then we find the difference between the average temperature and 65. The greater the resulting number, the more cooling will be needed.

Climate Central has found that 95% of cities analyzed across the US have seen an increase in cooling degree days since the 1970s. The back to school cooling demand has increased 34% in just the last 10 years. Palm Springs has seen about a 15% increase, however, there are some outliers that may skew the data.