Record-Breaking Heat Across the U.S.

Photo By: Climate.gov

The average U.S. temperature was 2 degrees above average in June, enough to produce 170 all-time high temperature records in U.S. cities; cap the 12 hottest months ever recorded and the hottest-ever first half of the year; abet wildfires that sent tens of thousands from their homes and scorched the second-greatest acreage ever recorded for the month (more than 1.3 million acres); and exacerbate the largest-ever recorded drought in the contiguous U.S, covering 56% of the land area.

Those facts, all consistent with global warming predictions by climate scientists, all come courtesy of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation's foremost tracker of weather and climate.

(The map shows where in the United States June 2012 temperatures were different from the 1981-2010 average. Shades of red indicate temperatures up to 8° Fahrenheit warmer than average, and shades of blue indicate temperatures up to 5° Fahrenheit cooler than average-the darker the color, the larger the temperature difference.)

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