Record-breaking snowfall. Dangerously excessive temperatures. Devastating floods.

And that’s simply 2023 in California.

When excessive climate hits, it typically does severe harm to the homes and flats the place we reside, prolonging its affect. Weather-related disasters in 2022 compelled 1.2 million folks within the U.S. from their houses for at the very least a month, and roughly half of them have but to return, in line with census information.

Could there be one other manner?

My colleague Christopher Flavelle lately wrote a couple of growing movement to build disaster-proof homes. Resilient house designs are gaining new consideration as climate grows extra excessive in an period of local weather change, he explains.

These designs embrace geodesic domes, that are good at withstanding excessive winds, insulating in opposition to excessive temperatures and limiting entry factors for wildfire embers. Other methods of constructing homes extra resilient embrace framing them with concrete or metal reasonably than wooden, and securing roofs so that they gained’t fly off throughout hurricanes.

These applied sciences exist already, however they’ve been sluggish to make their manner into mainstream house constructing due to the price, Christopher explains. But in locations with excessive and even average catastrophe threat, the long run financial savings on repairs or rebuilding are more likely to be better than the additional cash spent to construct in resilience options, Christopher advised me.

“It’s possible to achieve a really significant degree of protection against disasters,” he mentioned. “The toll doesn’t need to be nearly as high as it is.”

Most house consumers aren’t conscious of how a lot these options might save them in the long term, or they’re extra fearful in regards to the preliminary value than they’re about the price of eventual repairs. So builders have shied away from including options that consumers might not be prepared to pay further for.

But that image could possibly be shifting.

With insurers elevating their charges or refusing to offer new coverage in California, householders might come to view resilient houses as a technique to make their insurance coverage extra inexpensive, which may improve demand for the constructions — and provides homebuilders a technique to market them, Christopher mentioned. It’s additionally doable that constructing codes will get harder over time and begin to require at the very least a few of these resilience applied sciences.

Jon duSaint, a retired software program engineer, lately purchased property close to Bishop, within the arid Owens Valley close to California’s border with Nevada. He’s planning to construct a dome to reside in.

The construction will likely be roughly 30 toes in diameter and clad with fire-resistant aluminum shingles that mirror warmth. The home will likely be simpler to insulate than a typical home as a result of a dome wants much less exterior floor space than an oblong constructing to surround the identical quantity of ground area. And it may stand up to excessive winds and heavy snowpack.

“The dome shell itself is basically impervious,” duSaint advised The New York Times.

Where we’re touring

Today’s tip comes from Lien Dinh, who recommends Pinecrest Lake within the Stanislaus National Forest, a couple of three-hour drive east of Sacramento:

“Pinecrest Lake is a hidden gem. Spending the day at the lake in the summer has easily become one of my favorite things to do with our young boys. You can camp, hike, fish and swim at the lake, or explore some of the swimming holes nearby. In the winter, skiing at Dodge Ridge is more affordable and convenient than driving to Lake Tahoe from the Bay Area. We love it so much we bought a cabin nearby.”

Tell us about your favourite locations to go to in California. Email your strategies to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing extra in upcoming editions of the publication.

Tell us

What do you’re keen on about summer season in California? Barbecues, pool days, highway journeys? How do you rejoice the season?

Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com along with your strategies.

And earlier than you go, some good news

This article from the Style part of The Times speaks for itself:

For years, Kelley Louise Carter entertained a fantasy about how she was going to fulfill the love of her life. “We would be in Whole Foods, and he would be wearing a Michigan State University alumni sweatshirt,” she mentioned. “We would both be grabbing the almond milk at the same time, then we’d look up, lock eyes and that would be it. We’d exchange numbers and fall in love.”

Becoming the choice milk shopper of her desires wasn’t one thing Moreno Quintell McCalpin may have simply pulled off after they met in 2021, provided that he lived in Atlanta and she or he in Los Angeles. But turning into the person who helped her rethink what love at first sight would possibly appear like was, for him, straightforward.

Read more about Carter and McCalpin’s love story and their classic Hollywood marriage ceremony final month.