Environment
The World Just Sweated Through Another Record-Hot June
Every state in the U.S. has endured above-average heat this year.
If last month, while excreting rivulets of moisture like a ham in the oven, you found yourself thinking, This is crazy hot—you weren’t wrong. It was the warmest June in the U.S. since records began in the late 1800s, surpassing 2015’s historically scorching June and perhaps adding to the world’s never-before-recorded streak of incredible heat.
The 71.8-degree average temperature for the Lower 48 was more than 3 degrees above the historic norm, according to NOAA. It beat out the previous record-holder of 71.6 degrees in 1933, and made 2016’s year-to-date temperature the third-warmest in known U.S. history.