Only getting hotter from here

How have you been handling the heat wave so far this month?

If the answer is akin to "not well," you might start preparing for the next hundred years.

The National Weather Service predicts highs in the mid-90s for the rest of the week, but a team of climate experts from across the country predicts the region will experience a higher frequency of extremely hot days in the decades to come.

According to an interactive map of temperatures based off data from collaborative research team Climate Impact Lab and published by The Seattle Times, the entire state of Washington will experience an increasing number of days with temperatures over 95 degrees Fahrenheit in the coming years - whether countries take action against climate change in the future or not.

According to the map, Whitman County could be averaging 16.8 days above 95 degrees per year as soon as 2020, and that is if the world were to experience steady population growth and only take modest action against climate change. The county's average number of 95-degree-or-higher days from 1981 to 2010 was 7.5.

That number is only predicted to increase in the county and elsewhere as the decades go on. Between 2040 and 2059, the county could be averaging 26.4 days above 95 degrees. From 2080 to 2099, that number is expected to increase to 50 days a year.

Things are - and will be - worse in nearby Asotin, Columbia and Walla Walla counties, which are among the hottest areas in the state. By 2080, Walla Walla County could be experiencing an average of 68.8 days over 95 degrees. Asotin could experience somewhere near 65 days.

So why does it matter? Besides the obvious potential dangers and everyday annoyances a sweltering hot day poses, Asaph Cousins, associate professor of plant biology for Washington State University, said such temperature changes generally have a dramatic impact on plant life.

Cousins' lab focuses its research on how climate conditions impact plant metabolism.

For one thing, hot temperatures increase the evaporative demand on plants, evaporating water from their leaves at higher rates.

Not only that, but the reproductive structures of plants and the process of photosynthesis, which plants use to capture solar energy, are also very sensitive to changes in temperature. Typically, for plants already growing in warm environments, an increase in temperature means a decrease in plant yield.

"That means less productivity," Cousins said.

That's some of the bad news. The good news is the map depicts another, less scorching scenario: one in which countries take some steps to address emissions.

According to the data, were countries to take steps against climate change that roughly correspond to what hundreds of countries have agreed to in the Paris climate accord, those temperatures would be almost cut in half for Whitman County.

Rather than an average of 50 days above 95 degrees in 2080, Whitman County could experience a lesser 27.4 days, according to the map.

President Donald Trump made headlines in June when he announced the U.S. would pull out of the Paris climate accord, which he said imposed unfair requirements on businesses and workers to meet regulations. The agreement was adopted in December 2015. It does not force countries to follow certain guidelines but asks them to voluntarily create their own guidelines and plan and report progresses regularly.

Taylor Nadauld can be reached at (208) 883-4630, by email to tnadauld@dnews.com and on Twitter @tnadauldarg.