Alan Barreca in The Los Angeles Times: Northwest heat wave swamped the vulnerable, was a harsh climate wake-up call

“The really important and complex point is that places that are already hot — and are going to get hotter — are already adapted. They have air conditioning and they have homes built for wind to flow through,” said Alan Barreca, an associate professor at UCLA’s Institute of Environment and Sustainability.

“Definitely the Pacific Northwest is not used to those temps,” he said, “and so they’re more vulnerable.”