U.S. briefing
Contiguous U.S. records hottest summer, NOAA says
The contiguous United States averaged 74.4°F from June through August, exceeding the previous summer records by 0.4°F, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said.
The contiguous United States had its hottest summer since modern records began, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Wednesday, September 9. Temperatures averaged 74.4°F, or 23.6°C, over the June-to-August meteorological summer. That was 0.4°F above the previous records, set in 1936 and 2021.
August also broke its temperature record, with an average of 75.6°F, the highest since records began in 1895. NOAA said most of the mainland United States had above-average or much-above-average temperatures that month. Only parts of the northern Plains and Midwest experienced near-average conditions.
Human-caused climate change, driven mainly by fossil-fuel burning, figures prominently in the trend toward hotter summers. The Dust Bowl summers of the 1930s had a different combination of contributing factors: drought, extreme heat and excessive plowing across the Great Plains, particularly in 1936.