Although it was unusually cool in Alaska, hotter-than-normal conditions blanketed the Lower 48, with the most excessive heat in the Mountain West, Southwest, Northern Plains and Southeast. The heat was so widespread that every one of the Lower 48 states was at least 1 degree Fahrenheit (nearly 0.6 degrees Celsius) warmer than the 20th century average, said Russ Vose, chief of monitoring at NOAA\u2019s National Center for Environmental Information.<\/p>\n
The heat in the Dust Bowl years was more concentrated in parts of the Midwest and was aggravated by agricultural practices at the time, Vose said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Ruth, 11, from Burke, Va., gets cold water poured on her head to cool off at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/p>\n Ruth, 11, from Burke, Va., gets cold water poured on her head to cool off at the Great American State Fair on the National Mall, July 2, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Alex Brandon, File)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n What\u2019s happening now is due to the burning of coal, oil and gas, scientists said.<\/p>\n \u201cExtremely high temperatures across the continental U.S. this summer, along with intense drought<\/a> and fire conditions<\/a>, are absolutely consistent with the climate change signal,\u2019 said Katharine Jacobs, a climate scientist at the University of Arizona.<\/p>\n The biggest driver of the record heat was nighttime lows that smashed the old mark for hottest minimums by 0.7 degrees, NOAA said. Hotter nights are a classic sign of human-caused climate change<\/a>, according to scientists and several studies in peer-reviewed literature<\/a>. NOAA\u2019s calculation is based on averaging 24 hours of temperature, not just highs or lows.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re talking heat waves, that nighttime low is incredibly important for determining total heat stress,\u201d Masters said. \u201cSo if it doesn\u2019t cool off at night, your body doesn\u2019t have time to readjust to all the heat.\u201d<\/p>\n As nighttime temperatures increase, more people die<\/a> and lose sleep<\/a>, studies show.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dean Malcom drinks water while wiring street lights in extremely hot weather July 14, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya, File)<\/p>\n Dean Malcom drinks water while wiring street lights in extremely hot weather July 14, 2026, in Detroit. (AP Photo\/Paul Sancya, File)<\/p>\n Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n Share<\/p>\n Read More<\/p>\n The years 2021 and 1936 tie for America\u2019s hottest summer, which is June through August. Through July, 2026 is a shade cooler than 2021, which was powered by record heat in June.<\/p>\n Because of climate change, Masters said, \u201cthis may be one of the coolest years we\u2019re gonna experience for the rest of our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n What\u2019s needed, Masters said, is \u201cto stop burning so many fossil fuels. We also need to be spending money to adapt to the new climate that we\u2019ve put in place.\u201d<\/p>\n ___<\/p>\n The Associated Press\u2019 climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP\u2019s standards<\/a> for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KENSINGTON, Maryland (AP) \u2014 The contiguous United States sizzled to its hottest month ever last month, according to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809573,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[3292,1687,1685,4253,38634,192,8250,343622,8640,8641,11499,79,2986],"class_list":["post-809572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-alaska","tag-climate","tag-climate-and-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-science","tag-environment","tag-jeff-masters","tag-katharine-jacobs","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-national-oceanic-and-atmospheric-administration","tag-science","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Ruth,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1786413979_200_.jpeg\")
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