The United States just had its hottest summer on record, with extreme heat and drought gripping large parts of the country. From June through August, the average temperature across the contiguous US was 23.6 degrees Celsius (74.4 degrees Fahrenheit), the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said on Wednesday. That was 1.7C (3F) above the 20th-century average and 0.2C (0.4F) hotter than the previous record, set in both 1936 and 2021. In the 132 years of NOAA weather record-keeping, no summer period has been hotter.
August was also the hottest on record, with an average temperature of 24.2C (75.6F). The record-breaking heat has been increasingly common in recent years. Four of the five hottest US summers have occurred in the past five years, according to NOAA, part of a broader warming trend driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels. The 1936 record, by comparison, came at the height of the Dust Bowl, when extreme heat and drought combined with damaging farming practices across the Great Plains.
This summer’s heat also came with increasingly dry conditions across much of the country. By September 1, about 59 percent of the contiguous US was experiencing drought, up more than 10 percentage points in a month. Conditions worsened across parts of the Great Plains, Midwest and South regions, with Texas and Oklahoma receiving less than 30 percent of their usual August rainfall. But it wasn’t dry everywhere, with some states, like Indiana and Ohio, recording their wettest August on record and receiving roughly twice their usual rainfall.
The heat may not be over yet. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO), a United Nations agency, says the strengthening El Nino weather phenomenon could become one of the most intense on record and is expected to persist into early 2027. “If this trajectory continues, it may be stronger than anything since our monitoring began – so literally off the charts we have used for the past four decades,” WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters last week. El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern, but scientists say it can push global temperatures higher on a planet already warming because of the burning of fossil fuels. The WMO has warned that the current event could bring more extreme heat, drought and flooding around the world.
In the US, NOAA expects a warmer-than-usual September across much of the country. Drought could also persist or worsen in several regions, while parts of the Northwest, Midwest and South face a higher-than-usual risk of significant wildfires.
