Largest American cities without air conditioning in most homes

Officials in Britain are bracing for the worst this week as an unprecedented heat wave is forecast to push temperatures up to 40 C (104 F) for the first time in a region that has little air conditioning.

Millions of Americans who live in cities where air conditioning is not prevalent know the feeling. They have felt the full brunt of heat domes in recent years and the experience has sparked some conversations that the rest of the nation might take for granted. Namely: How do you provide relief from heat when many of your homes and buildings don't have AC?

Cities, including Seattle and Portland, set record highs last summer as the temperatures drifted into the triple-digits and showed local officials and experts how ill-prepared the region is for extreme heat events, according to Vivek Shandas, the founder of the Sustaining Urban Places Research Lab at Portland State University.

“In the Pacific Northwest, in these northern latitudes, we’re really ill-prepared and arguably most vulnerable to these heat waves coming through because we just don’t have a history of planning for it,”