There was a pattern between how often record high temperatures were set vs. the number of record low temperatures. Our analysis showed that pattern is changing, and our reporting showed that was due to a warming planet.
The nights are getting warmer. Most people in the U.S. have felt it, and it turns out climate change is the reason. You can see this play out in the temperature records: In a balanced climate, the number of record-high temperatures would be about the same as the number of record lows. But that's not happening -- more record-highs are being set, but it's not the daytime highs, it's the overnight (low) highs.
After figuring out which weather stations had tracked temperatures for decades, after analyzing those decades of temperature data, we built an interactive that let readers see how the data played out for the weather station nearest to them.
What I did
I edited this piece and steered the search for the temperature data and the analysis necessary to learn what we needed to know about the data.
Analysis of high and low temperatures across the U.S. project links
More hot nights the sign of an off-kilter climate, scientists say