Temperatures soared to the triple digits across the country this week, yet the Bay Area experienced a temperate week in the 70s.

Inland California was joined by the rest of the country in a grueling heat wave, seeing record daily temperatures in regions where heat spells have been historically rare, as reported by AP News. Dennis Baldocchi, UC Berkeley professor of biometeorology, pins the phenomenon to global warming.

“We are putting in more and more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Baldocchi said. “Atmospheric models that predict climate and weather have been predicting for a long time that if we keep doing this we are going to have much warmer temperatures.”

While the heat wave broke daily high records in Oregon and Washington, the Bay Area maintained a mild average high of 74 degrees Fahrenheit. According to Baldocchi, this is because of the Bay Area’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean.

Baldocchi noted that upwelling — an oceanographic phenomenon in which cold, deep water rises to the surface of the ocean — moderates the Bay Area’s climate. Nearby mountain ranges also lower temperatures, he said.

“We are lucky here with the ocean,” Baldocchi said.

The Midwest United States and Europe have also seen the effects of the recent heat wave, Baldocchi said. According to him, rising temperatures weaken the transmission of temperature through the air jet stream, causing the buildup of “intense, hot weather” at stationary spots on certain continents.

Campus senior and geography minor Kendrick Sharpe also attributed the heat wave to climate change. However, he noted that experts can only be “somewhat sure” of what the weather in Berkeley will be like one year from now.

“Climate change and the atmosphere and climate are all statistics,” Sharpe said. “Just because climate change makes things more likely, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will happen.”

Sharpe, who studies earth systems science, gave a lecture on climate catastrophe through The Undistinguished Lecture Series at UC Berkeley in Nov. 2021.

According to Sharpe, common effects of global warming include drought and crop failures, which he noted occur because many plants have not evolved to survive extreme heat. He said while there is not absolute certainty about the impacts from climate change, the goal should be to minimize risk.

Baldocchi added that the goal should currently be to decarbonize the environment, emphasizing the importance of renewable energy. Students can contribute to these efforts by buying electric cars and installing solar panels as soon as they procure jobs after graduating, he added.

However, Baldocchi also stressed the importance of voting for and electing people that will “do something.”

“There is so much misinformation and confusion out there and there are people who are elected that are anti-environment and can keep that status-quo,” Baldocchi said. “Students don’t vote as much as they can and should.”

Erica Jean contributed to this story.