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Philadelphia residents endured one of the city’s hottest summers this year, according to WHYY, with the average temperature from June through August reaching 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit, matching the third-warmest summer recorded in the city’s history.
The National Weather Service reported that temperatures climbed above 90 degrees on 40 days so far this year, well beyond the city’s historical average of roughly 30 such days annually.
The hottest stretch came in early July, when temperatures surpassed 100 degrees for three consecutive days.
Above-Normal Heat Through the Season
Sarah Johnson, a warning coordination meteorologist at the National Weather Service, told WHYY that Philadelphia was well above normal for the season overall.
Philadelphia’s all-time hottest summer remains 2010, when the average reached 79.6 degrees.
This summer was not an isolated local anomaly. South Florida similarly experienced one of its hottest summers on record, CBS News Miami reported, describing the season there in two words: hot and dry.
What Drove the Temperatures
Gabriel Vecchi, a professor of geosciences at Princeton University who specializes in climate science, told WHYY that both large-scale global warming and smaller, unpredictable weather patterns contributed to the historically warm conditions in Philadelphia.
He said rising global temperatures increase the likelihood of extreme heat, but that the specific setup of storm patterns this season also played a role.
Human-caused climate change has been pushing overall temperatures higher, raising the probability of dangerous heat events across the region.
El Niño and What Comes Next
Johnson noted that a strong El Niño tends to have a more limited effect on mid-Atlantic temperatures but does suppress tropical storm activity in the Atlantic basin.
Forecasters expect the El Niño pattern to push global temperatures to new record highs in 2027, according to WHYY.
For Northeast Philadelphia residents, the summer’s toll was measurable. The city recorded a third of its 90-degree days above the long-run average. That number stands on its own.