America’s least air conditioned city is revealed – as three West Coast metropolises take the top spots

According to a study by the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Housing Survey, San Francisco has the unwanted reputation of being the city with the least air conditioning in America.

About 55 percent of Bay Area residents surveyed in 2021 reported no air conditioning in their homes or apartments. In total, there are nearly 1 million homes without cooling.

The crime-ridden California city beat out more temperate Seattle, which had the least air conditioning per household in 2019, to take first place.

Nearly 46 percent of all homes — 738,200 households — in the Washington metropolitan area lack air conditioning. In a distant third place was none other than Los Angeles, where 16 percent of homes — some 725,800 — are not cooled.

All three are in the midst of record heat waves — LA experienced scorching temperatures above 30 degrees earlier this month, and dozens of locations in the West and Pacific Northwest have Previous heat records were broken or equaled with temperatures well above 38 degrees Celsius.

“If you don’t have air conditioning in Los Angeles, you’re going to have a rough time,” wrote writer Ivonne Cruz, as temperatures in the normally mild metropolis recently soared to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit, more than 10 degrees warmer than the usual highs in the City of Angels.

On the coast, San Francisco also faced a prolonged heat wave, with temperatures inland rising to over 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

That came to an end last weekend, when a high pressure system over California finally moved east after two weeks of hellish temperatures.

However, a new high pressure area is expected to strengthen over California, leading to a new warming trend.

As a result, residents can expect temperatures inland to rise above 32 degrees Celsius again this weekend, while temperatures along the famed coastline could soar above 27 degrees Celsius.

That’s about 5 to 10 degrees above normal, which is why authorities in both cities have decided to open cooling centers for people who need a place to beat the heat.

Seattle residents are seeing something similar: Thursday marked the 15th straight day that the city was hit with temperatures above 80 degrees Fahrenheit.

According to the weather forecast, the heat will soon break the record for the longest period of temperatures above 27 degrees Celsius, which was set in July 2015, when the metropolitan area was heated for 15 days straight.

For comparison, temperatures in early summer are usually around 21 degrees Celsius.

In both San Francisco and Seattle, however, the percentage of homes with air conditioning has slowly increased over the past six years.

In 2015, nearly 66 percent of Seattle residents and 63 percent of San Francisco residents did not have air conditioning.

The remaining cities on the list of metropolises with the least air conditioning had only less than seven percent of their homes without cooling.

In Detroit, where temperatures typically hover around 90 degrees Fahrenheit in mid-June, there are 114,800 homes without air conditioning, but 93.49 percent of homes have air conditioning.

Next up was New York City, which is currently in the midst of its own 90-degree heat wave, which 7,167,100 homes with air conditioning and only 469,800 without.

In sixth place was rival city Boston, where 1,826,200 homes have air conditioning, compared to just 105,600 without..

And in seventh place was to Riverside, California, where 4.11 percent of homes — nearly 59,000 households — had no air conditioning.

Unlike coastal San Francisco and Los Angeles, the landlocked California city experiences average daily highs of over 90 degrees Fahrenheit from late June to late September.

Next up was Chicago, the only metropolis representing the Midwest besides Detroit.

Just last month, the city was hit by record temperatures that were earlier than normal, with temperatures exceeding 32 degrees for more than a week.

The research showed that There are 3,583,400 homes equipped with air conditioning, which corresponds to almost 97 percent of respondents.

Next up was another hotspot in the Northeast: the City of Brotherly Love in Pennsylvania.

The Census survey found that Philadelphians also love air conditioning, with 97.87 percent of all homes having a cooling system.

Rounding out the top ten was Washington, DC, where temperatures can average 91 degrees in July.

In the country’s capital, 98.54 percent of all homes have at least one air conditioner.

The hottest city with the least air conditioning, Phoenix, ranked 11th, with 98.54 percent of homes having air conditioning.

The next destination was Atlanta, an almost equally sweltering city. In July, the average daily temperature can reach 32 degrees Celsius.

About 98.73 percent of homes are equipped with air conditioning, and only 1.27 percent are without.

Next up was Dallas, where 98.9 percent of homeowners had air conditioners installed, and then Miami, 98.91 percent, and Houston, 99.11 percent.

Several cities that also made the list of least air-conditioned also landed on the list of sweatiest metropolises.

Atlanta was the second sweatiest city in America, DC was third, and Houston was ninth.

Jordan Valerie, a media correspondent in Atlanta, explained to her followers what it’s like to live in a sweaty city without air conditioning.

“It’s 100 degrees outside in Atlanta! Please don’t invite me outside for nothing before the sun goes down, respectful!” she said as she sat in her car.

‘The heat affects my posture.’