Google Searches For Extreme Weather Events Peaked This Summer As U.S. Battled Floods And Heatwaves

Online search interest in phrases like “heat wave” hit an all-time peak this summer as record-breaking high temperatures and extreme weather events across the U.S. are increasingly drawing public attention to the climate crisis.

According to U.S. Google Trends data, online searches hit an all-time peak in July this year as several cities across the U.S. broke decades-old or all-time temperature records. With the exception of 2020—when most of the focus was on the Covid-19 pandemic—search interest in the phrase “heat wave” has consistently peaked higher every summer for the past five years. Extreme temperatures across the U.S. have led to unprecedented droughts in parts of the country and this is reflected in Google Trends data showing searches for “drought” peaked twice in the last five years—in June 2021 and July 2022. U.S.-wide search interest in the term “floods” for the year 2022 also peaked in the last two weeks as at least four separate regions across the country witnessed once-in-a-millennium floods. Despite the rising search interest in these extreme weather events, searches for “climate change” in the U.S. has remained largely steady except for a very steep spike on Earth Day in 2022—likely a result of the Google Doodle published on that day. Globally, however, searches for the phrase “climate crisis’ hit a ten-year high in March as parts of South Asia witnessed a deadly and record-breaking heatwave.