The United States recorded its hottest summer on record in 2026, breaking a temperature record that had stood for more than a century, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The average temperature across the contiguous United States during summer, which runs from June through August, was the warmest in NOAA’s 132-year record. The 2026 average was 0.4 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than the previous records set in 1936 and 2021.
August also set a record, with an average temperature of 75.6 degrees and average daytime high temperatures reaching 88.6 degrees nationwide.
The heat was particularly pronounced across the southwest. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado each recorded their warmest summer on record, with Arizona tying its previous record. Much of the country also experienced unusually warm overnight temperatures, while daytime temperatures remained closer to average across portions of the Midwest and the Ohio and Tennessee valleys.
The record heat coincided with a summer marked by uneven precipitation and expanding drought. The contiguous U.S. received an average of 8.11 inches of precipitation during the summer, 0.21 inches below the 20th-century average, placing the season among the driest third of the historical record.
California had just 0.20 inches of precipitation, or about 26% of its average summer total, making it the state’s fifth-driest summer on record and its driest since 2002. Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and West Virginia, by contrast, experienced above-average precipitation.
Drought covered 59.1% of the contiguous U.S. as of Sept. 1, an increase of more than 10 percentage points from early August.
Hawaii experienced the opposite extreme, with Hurricane Lala bringing heavy rainfall that helped make August the state’s second-wettest on record. Rainfall across the island chain from January through August was more than three feet above the 1991–2020 average, making it the wettest year-to-date period on record.
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The summer’s record heat followed a series of heat waves, including a heat dome in July that trapped hot air across parts of the eastern U.S. around Independence Day, after record temperatures were recorded across the Rockies and Great Plains.
NOAA, established in 1970 under President Richard Nixon’s administration, monitors the oceans and atmosphere, operates weather satellites, and provides forecasts and warnings for extreme weather.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
