For teachers and other educators, it has been a bumpy summer full of unknowns.

Used to delivering answers to students, they are now asking questions about what they can expect during the fall semester.

“It’s a lot of uncertainty,” said Jo Pustizzi, a high school teacher in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The one thing Jo and her husband, Jim, who is also a public school teacher in Colorado Springs, can rely on is the source of income they have been generating from their Airbnb.

Seven years ago, the couple converted their cabin in the Rocky Mountains into a place to stay for out-of-towners looking to escape.

“Jo had to really convince me to do an Airbnb, because we had put so much work into the cabin that I didn’t want someone to abuse it,” Jim said.

Jo and Jim are far from the only ones as well. Airbnb says it has seen more teachers turn to the service as a way to supplement their income.

In 2019, Airbnb says teachers raked in $230 million through rentals. About $81 million of that came during the months of June, July and August, when they were not teaching.

It is a big jump from 2017, when teachers brought in $160 million, $54 million coming during the summer months.

“It’s kind of like our own little business, too, so it is fun,” said Jo. "It’s fun just reading reviews or talking to people on the phone.”

It gives the Pustizzis a way to live their lives a little more loosely as they near retirement age and worry about their pensions amid the pandemic.

It also gives them a chance to look back on reviews knowing they did what they do best: share information and experiences.

"People enjoy the same things that we enjoy and it’s cool,” said Jim.

“It feels good knowing other people are feeling good,” added Jo.

For a couple whose profession and passion is in flux, what more could you ask for?

The fall foliage season's yellows, oranges, and reds are slowly expanding across the United States. As seen through tree leaves, the change from summer to fall is changing at a different pace due to climate change.

The increasing global temperature creates wetter and warmer areas of the country, which directly impacts the trees and their photosynthesis process.

"September is the most important month for determining the timing and quality of the fall color," said Howard Neufeld, professor of biology at Appalachian State University.

Climate change is extending summer temperatures into September, which alters the fall foliage. A shifting summer season will change the fall season.

"In a future high-CO2 world that is warmer, we may see a longer summer season," said Neufeld.

Higher air temperatures cause the atmosphere to hold more water vapor, leading to more rain in areas.

Neufeld says warmer and wetter weather creates duller red-colored leaves.

The red leaves are what define the beauty of the fall foliage season.

The orange and yellow leaves will always exist because the green of the chlorophyll masks the pigments responsible for those colors during the summer.

Climate change will also change the makeup of the forests and the leaf canopy. The warmer weather will drive some trees to relocate to the north.

There was a similar movement of Florida trees following the retreat of the glaciers.

"They can move — not like in 'Lord of the Rings' where they can walk — but through seed dispersal. If it's too warm in the South, then they'll have to move north," said Neufeld.

As the leaves shift from green to their fall colors, they do so at different time intervals because of the warmer temperatures.

"The intensity of the color is not as great because you don't get all the colors coming up at one time," said Neufeld.

The fall foliage tourism industry is estimated to pump $25 billion to $30 billion into economies across the country each year.

Scott Withers at Newsy first reported this story.

July 2021 was the earth’s hottest month on record, according to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The land and ocean surface temperatures were a combined 1.67 degrees above the average.

One city in the southwest region of the U.S. is looking at solutions to help keep the ground cooler.

“It looks basically like cured concrete,” said Ryan Stevens, a civil engineer with the City of Phoenix.

Ryan Stevens and other engineers are trying to lower the temperature of the asphalt.

“Really, it gives that illusion of putting on the product like sunscreen onto our roads, and that's really what it's doing is insulating our roads from the daytime solar energy," he said.

In nine areas across Phoenix, the city is piloting its "Cool Pavement Program." It’s a lighter coating on top of the roads already in place.

“It’s not paint. We hear people say, 'Well, you just painted your streets,' we didn't paint our streets. We actually used an asphalt-based product,” said Kini Knudson, director of Street Transportation for the City of Phoenix.

The program began last year and currently coats 36 miles of asphalt across the city.

“If it’s something that makes sense from an environmental climate perspective but also makes our pavement last longer, for me, it's a no-brainer,” he said.

“The idea is to keep the energy out of the pavement because at night the pavement is the last thing to cool down. About 30 to 40 percent of the urban area is paved surfaces,” Stevens said.

Paved surfaces contribute to similar problems in cities across the U.S. Larger populations and more buildings created a higher urban heat island index -- it’s a concept called the urban heat island effect.

“The urban heat island is a situation that has been studied for about 200 years. It happens because you have buildings that can store heat differently than the natural surface. So a building will hold onto heat and hold it on through the night, and what that does is it keeps the nighttime temperatures warmer so we have this situation where we’re not cooling off at night,” Erinanne Saffell, Arizona’s state climatologist, said.

“That energy, the sunlight comes down and is stored in the surfaces,” she explained. “The more reflective a surface, the less energy it’s going to store and so it's not going to be as hot.”

Saffell compares it to how a person might feel wearing a dark t-shirt in the hot sun.

“If you're wearing a light-colored shirt that reflects the heat, that's not going to get you as hot,” she said.

“We know that heat is a challenge for our community, we want our community to be comfortable,” Kate Gallego, the Mayor of Phoenix, said. “We’ve noticed it’s not getting as cool as night, we’re retaining a lot of heat.”

Results from the first year of the program show the cool pavement had an average surface temperature of 10.5 to 12 degrees Fahrenheit lower than regular asphalt at noon and during the afternoon hours. At all times of the day, the cool asphalt was cooler than traditional asphalt.

“That’s enough temperature distance or change that you can feel it if you're walking in a community,” Gallego said.

However, Stevens said it’s still being looked at how this impacts the air around the asphalt.

“The degree of which that air mixing, does it feel hotter or not, is something we still need to look at,” he said.

The city plans on trying different colors and shades as well.

Keeping buildings and asphalt lighter is something Steve Hamburg says has been used in design decisions for quite a while.

“If you go to the Mediterranean, you would never see dark roofs. You're always going to see light roofs, because they want to reflect the heat off the roofs so it doesn't warm the structure…people have been known to do that for thousands of years,” Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund, said.

The project in Phoenix will continue to see what works best to mitigate the urban heat island effect and keep our planet cooler.

“It’s going to take a few more years to be able to fully evaluate the impact and the benefits of it,” Knudson said.

Another nice day before rain returns

Tuesday looks nice before a cold front brings our next chance of rain by midweek.

Updated: 11:58 PM EDT Sep 6, 2021

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SOAK CITY. ASHLEY: I DON’T THINK I AM READY R FO TOP ABOUT SUMMER COMING TO AN END. STEV:EN I NEED TEMPERATURESO T BE AS HOT AS THEY CAN BE FOR AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. ASHLEY: TWO IN DENIAL ANCHORS HERE. ALLIN:SOHE T FACT THAT CONEY IS CLOSING FOR THE SEASON, IT IS TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS NIGHTS OF LIGHTS. STEVEN:Y M WIFE WAS TALKING ABOUT THAT OVER THE WEEKEND. ASHL:EY SKIPPING FALL AND THANKSGIVING. ALLISON: TEMPERATURES RIGHT NOW ARE SITTING AT 69. WE ARE HAVING SOME NICE FALL WEATHER THIS WEEK IN PAR BUT OTHER TIMES THERE IS WARM WEATHER. BY THE END OF E WEEKEND, WE COULD BE LOOKING AT TEMPERATURES NEARING 90 DEGREES. 69 CINCINNATI, 73 MASON, HAMILTON8. 6 ALSO 68 IN HARRISON. BY THE TIME YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING, WE FALL INTO ETH LOW 60’S. IT MIGHT BE FOGGY FIRST THING IN THE MORNING .THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE MORNING, TEMPERATURES SIT AROUND 63 BY 7:00, FEELING COMFORTABLE EARLY ON. BY 9:00, WARMING UP TO 69 AND TEMPERURATES CONTINUE TO WARM INTO THE 80’S. RADAR IS PRETTY QUIET RIGHT NOW, REALLY DON’T EVEN NEED TO SHOW YOU. FUTURECAST STILL TRIES TO BRING IN A FEW SHOWERS INTO MESO NORTHERN ZONES. I THINK WE ARE GOING TO STAY DRY ALL NIGHT LONG. SOME PATCHY FOG WILL BE AROUND FOR SOME, OTHERS DEANGLI WHIT CLEAR SKY. A PRETTY QUIET SRTTA TO TUESDAY WITH TEMPERATURES AROUND 63. 84 FOR THE HIGH INHE T AFTERNOON, AN INCREEAS IN CLOUD COVER FOR THE AFTERNOON BECAUSE WE HAVE A COLD FRONT ON THE W THAT’S GOING TO BRING RAIN BY EARLY WEDNESDAY MORNING. IT LOOKS LIKE IT IS GOING TO ARRIVE BETWEEN MIDNIGHT UNTIL THE MEHETI SUN STARTS TO COME UP WEDNESDAY MORNING. THIS IS A LITTLEOO EARLY, AROUND 12:30 OR SO. I TNKHI IT IS GOING TO HOLD OFF UNTIL CLOSER TO 3:00 IN THE MORNING BEFORE IT ROLLS THROUGH CINCINNA.TI IT WILL BRING THE POTENTIAL FOR RAIN AND THUNDER. IT MIGHT WAKE YOU UP EARLY ON WEDNESDAY MORNING. EPKE THIS IN MIND FOR THE WEDNESDAY MORNING COMMUTE. THAT LOOKS LIKITE IS GOING TO BEHE T ONE MOST IMPACTED BY THE FRONT. BY WEDNESDAY EVENING, WE CLEAR OUT BRIEFLY. WE COULD SEE APOTTY S SHOWERS THURSDAY, TBU OVERALL IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING PLANNED FORHE T NEXT COUPLE OF AFTERNOONS, MOST OF THEM ARE PRETTY GOOD. IF YOU HAVE PRACTICES COMING UP IN THE AFTERNOON OR YOUR KSID HAVE PRACTICES OR GAMES TO GET TO, EVERYTHING LOOKS GOOD WEATHER-WISE AS LONG AS THE RAIN CONTINUES TO ARRIVE OVERNIGHT WHILE WE ARE SLEEPING INTO WEDNESDAY MORNING. TEMPERATURE WISE, A BIT OF A ROLLER COAST.ER ON FRIDAY, WE ARE IN THE UPPER 70’S BECAUSE OF THE CDOL FRONT THAT BRINGS A BRIEF TASTEF O FALL. AFTERNOONS 70’S, BUT AFTERNOON MIDDLE 50’S. HUMIDITY IS PRETTY MUCH NONEXISTENT UNTIL THWEE EKEND. WE SEE ANOTHER SURGE OF RM AIRWA BRINGING HIGH TEMPERATURES CLOSE TO 90 DEGREES ON SUNDAY AND OVERNIGHT LOWS CLOSE TO 70 NDSUAY MORNING AND AGAIN ON MONDAY. TONIGHT 63, PRETTY CALM AND QUIET. ENWH WE GET TO WEDNESDAY, 80 DEGREES IS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING AT. BY THURSDAY AND FRIDAY, TWO DAYS OF TEMPERATURES TOPPING OUT AROUND 77. STILL LOOKING KE 81LI ON SATURDAY AND THEN A CLIMB TO THE UPPER 80’S MOVING IN ON SUNDAY AND MONDAY. IF YOU ARE NOT READY TO LET GO

Another nice day before rain returns

Tuesday looks nice before a cold front brings our next chance of rain by midweek.

Updated: 11:58 PM EDT Sep 6, 2021

Tuesday looks nice before a cold front brings our next chance of rain by midweek.

Tuesday looks nice before a cold front brings our next chance of rain by midweek.