Temperatures across the country have already hit triple digits this summer. But it doesn't have to get that hot for one critical threat to exist.
Three of the five nationwide child heatstroke deaths in vehicles listed this year on noheatstroke.org happened when local temperatures in those areas reached no more than 90 degrees. In 2022 these deaths have been reported in Texas (2), Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Georgia.
Children left in vehicles have suffered fatal heatstrokes when temperatures were in the 60s and 70s.
"It doesn't have to be blazing hot for a child to die in a car from the heat," said noheatstroke.org founder Jan Null.
Null is a meteorologist at San Jose State University. In 2001 he got a call from a reporter after a child left in a car died. The reporter asked Null how hot it could've gotten in the car.
"There really weren't any good comprehensive studies," said the meteorologist of 48 years.
Null researched, working with Stanford University ER doctors. Studies were published. Reams of data are available now to show the dangers of children left in vehicles.
"The biggest takeaway is it can happen to anyone," Null said. "It is not any one demographic."
"A car can heat up 19 degrees in 10 minutes, and cracking a window doesn't help," Safe Kids South Carolina director Kevin Poore said. "Heatstroke can happen anytime, anywhere."
Facts to know about hot car deaths β A child's body can warm at a rate three to five times faster than an adult.
β Cell and internal organ damage that quickly can lead to death comes with an internal body temperature of 107 degrees.
β On a 70-degree day, the inside temperature of an enclosed vehicle can reach 99 degrees within 20 minutes. In an hour, it can reach 113 degrees. On a 90-degree day the temperature can reach 109 degrees within 10 minutes and 133 degrees within an hour. On a 100-degree day, the inside temperature can reach 143 degrees in an hour.
The noheatstroke.org info goes back to 1998 and shows:
β There have been 912 child deaths in hot vehicles nationwide, including 23 deaths last year.
β The highest death totals came just before the COVID-19 pandemic, with 53 instances each in 2018 and 2019.
β Almost 53% of deaths occur when a child was forgotten by a caregiver. Almost 26% occur when a child gets into a vehicle on his or her own. About 20% of deaths are when caregivers knowingly leave children in vehicles.
β Deaths range from children age five days to 14 years. More than half of the children were younger than 2 years. The average age of death is 27 months.
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β July, August and June are the most common months for hot car deaths, with almost twice as many as any other month. The most deaths occur in the southern part of the United States, where temperatures are hottest.
β Almost half of deaths, at 48%, happen when the outside temperature is 90 to 99 degrees. Another 32% happen with 80- to 89-degree temperatures. The average outside temperature is 89.3 degrees.
β Thursday and Friday are the most common days of the week for hot vehicle deaths.
β The responsible party in hot vehicle deaths is the mother, father or both in about 74% of the time.
β More than half of cases, at 58%, occur at home. Another 23% of cases happen at a work place.
β There are 27 states with 10 or more deaths since 1998, including states as far north as Michigan, New York and New Jersey.
β Only Alaska, New Hampshire and Vermont haven't recorded at least one child heatstroke death in a vehicle.
What should parents do? Null said caregivers can do plenty to avoid the tragedy of heatstroke deaths, starting with the basics.
"Never leave a child unattended in a vehicle, not even for a minute," Null said. "That minute you walk into the store becomes 10 minutes."
For the more than half of cases where leaving a child in the vehicle is accidental, Null suggests something like a stuffed animal in the car seat that a parent puts in the front when a child is present as a reminder. Or something the parent will need like a briefcase, purse or wallet left in the back seat so the driver will have to go back there at the end of a trip.
"Get into a pattern," Null said.
For cases where children get into vehicles on their own, often age 2 to 5, Null suggests teaching children not to play in vehicles but also to beep the horn if they ever are trapped.
"Keep cars locked," Null said. "Keep keys and key fobs away from children. Cars are not a play area."
Then there are cases where parents leave children in cars intentionally, often believing a short stop in somewhere won't hurt.
"A lot of states that's criminal, but even if it's not, the consequences are just not worth whatever you think it's worth to leave a child in the car," Null said.
There are developing technologies in new cars as reminder systems, but Null said relatively few cars on the road are new ones, so it will take some time before any new systems will become common. Plus, parents of small children may be less likely to purchase new cars compared to older ones.
"It needs to be continued education," Null said.
departure from average temperature
What summer weather was like the year you were born
Summer weather over the years
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
Weather is global, meaning what is seen in an American summer is often reflected or complemented by the rest of the world. Even recurring El Nino and La Nina phenomena begin in the ocean and ripple out to affect the entire worldβs weather, sometimes for years at a time.
Within the United States, these global forces could mean extreme weather on the coasts while the Midwest is unscathed. It could mean heavy rain and cold temperatures in the entire country for that whole summer, with consequences for everything from agriculture to tourism. Understanding these trends is interesting even as trivia, but weather events shape what happens to people in both direct and indirect ways that are worth considering.
To illustrate what summer weather was like from 1920 to 2021, Stacker consulted data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The average, maximum, and minimum temperatures as well as the average precipitation data for each year was gathered fromΒ NOAAβs Time Series database . Summer is defined as the months of June, July, and August.
What was the weather like for your very first summer? Take a look, and you may remember more than you thinkβor learn something new about a summer before your time.
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Classic Stock // Getty Images
1920: Cold and hot in Russia
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.2Β° F (#98 warmest year; 1.6% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.1Β° F (#94 warmest year; 1.5% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.3Β° F (#97 warmest year; 1.8% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.0" (#19 highest; 8.1% above 100-year average)
If you happened to be born in the western portion of modern-day Russia, you experienced the most out-of-character hot summer temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere in 1920. And if you were born in the easternmost portion of Russia, you experienced the coldest extreme summer temperatures.
Leemage/Corbis Historical // Getty Images
1921: Highs and lows in North America
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.4Β° F (#27 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#33 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.5Β° F (#23 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.4" (#54 highest; 0.5% above 100-year average)
In the summer of 1921, the most extreme cold summer temperature was in the Canadian MaritimesβNew Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. Some of the proportionally hottest temperatures were less than 1,000 miles away in the U.S. Midwest.
Bristol Archives/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
1922: An extreme drought in Minnesota
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#42 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#34 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#51 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.8" (#79 highest; 6.0% below 100-year average)
Minnesota and New Mexico both experienced extreme droughts in the summer of 1922, even before the Dust Bowl droughts that blanketed the country in the years to come. The most anomalous cold and hot temperatures were close together again, in northern Canada and the furthest eastern portion of Russia.
ullstein bild Dtl. // Getty Images
1923: Heavy rain in the breadbasket
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.0Β° F (#82 warmest year; 0.6% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.6Β° F (#85 warmest year; 1.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.4Β° F (#70 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.9" (#22 highest; 7.2% above 100-year average)
In 1923, Americaβs breadbasketβoften considered most of the Great Plains states or the Midwestβexperienced torrential amounts of precipitation all summer. The coldest anomalous summer was in western Europe, and the warmest anomalous summer was in Russia.
De Agostino Picture/Library // Getty Images
1924: An extreme drought in the West
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.9Β° F (#85 warmest year; 0.8% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#67 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.3Β° F (#99 warmest year; 1.9% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.4" (#91 highest; 11.7% below 100-year average)
A severe drought encompassed the western United States in the summer of 1924, growing more severe from May through September. The most abnormal cold summer temperatures were once again in the Canadian Maritimes.
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The Montefraulo Collection/Hulton Archive // Getty Images
1925: A dry summer in the South
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.8Β° F (#55 warmest year; 0.5% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.0Β° F (#41 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.6Β° F (#62 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.6" (#83 highest; 8.4% below 100-year average)
The southern United States experienced an escalating drought during the summer of 1925. The most anomalously cold temperatures were recorded in the Canadian Maritimes.
Science & Society Picture Library // Getty Images
1926: A dry Pacific Northwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.3Β° F (#67 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.0Β° F (#83 warmest year; 0.7% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.6" (#44 highest; 3.0% above 100-year average)
Different areas in the Pacific Northwest experienced drought during the summer of 1926. The same year, the most unseasonably warm summer temperatures were reported in northern China and Mongolia.
ullstein bild Dtl. // Getty Images
1927: A rainy summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 69.8Β° F (#100 warmest year; 2.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.5Β° F (#101 warmest year; 2.3% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.0Β° F (#101 warmest year; 2.4% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#36 highest; 4.3% above 100-year average)
Areas of states in the upper South, like Missouri and southern Illinois, experienced heavy rainfall that also affected the far Midwest like Montana and North Dakota. And, once again, the Canadian Maritimes experienced the most disproportionately cold summer temperatures.
Keystone France/Gamma Keystone // Getty Images
1928: The Okeechobee hurricane
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.4Β° F (#95 warmest year; 1.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.0Β° F (#95 warmest year; 1.7% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.8Β° F (#90 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 10.5" (#1 highest; 26.2% above 100-year average)
The deadly Okeechobee hurricane of 1928 killed an estimated 4,000 people in the Caribbean and Florida. The Category 5 hurricane struck in September following a colder than average summer. The highest average precipitationβ10.5 inchesβoccured this summer as well.
Keystone France/Gamma Keystone // Getty Images
1929: A wave of Pacific drought
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.2Β° F (#72 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.7Β° F (#51 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.8Β° F (#91 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.0" (#97 highest; 15.9% below 100-year average)
A drought of varying intensity affected the entire Pacific coast during the summer of 1929. Otherwise, temperatures were low-average across the United States.
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Underwood Archives // Getty Images
1930: A dry Midwestern summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.1Β° F (#36 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.9Β° F (#16 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.3Β° F (#73 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 6.1" (#102 highest; 26.9% below 100-year average)
An escalating drought affected a wide swath of the Midwest from southern Illinois through Kentucky and all the way to Virginia and West Virginia. This continued to spread and grow through the winter.
Marka/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
1931: A warm, dry summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.8Β° F (#15 warmest year; 2.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.3Β° F (#10 warmest year; 2.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#28 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.6" (#84 highest; 9.0% below 100-year average)
During a warmer-than-average year, many parts of the United States experienced drought that worsened during the summer. And of all places, Greenland experienced a disproportionately warm summer along with Europe and the United States.
ullstein bild Dtl. // Getty Images
1932: A wet summer in the Southwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#44 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.1Β° F (#39 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#49 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#49 highest; 2.3% above 100-year average)
During an average temperature year, the Caribbean experienced the most anomalously cold summer temperatures. The American Southwest had an especially wet season with much higher than average precipitation through the summer.
George Rinhart/Corbis Historical // Getty Images
1933: A warm, very dry summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.9Β° F (#14 warmest year; 2.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.6Β° F (#7 warmest year; 2.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.2Β° F (#35 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.1" (#95 highest; 14.2% below 100-year average)
Average temperatures throughout 1933 were warmer than usual. That corresponded with widespreadβbut still mostly moderateβdrought conditions across the entire swath of the U.S. Midwest.
Bettman // Getty Images
1934: The Central America hurricane
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.5Β° F (#6 warmest year; 3.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 87.3Β° F (#2 warmest year; 3.5% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.7Β° F (#20 warmest year; 2.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 6.9" (#98 highest; 16.8% below 100-year average)
In June of 1934, one of the warmest years of the century, what was called simply the Central America hurricane struck there as well as the Caribbean and the southern United States. It was just a Category 2, but caused up to 2,000 deaths after extensive flooding. This compounded the devastating effects of widespread extreme drought in the U.S.
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H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1935: Tropical storm Labor Day
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.9Β° F (#47 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.0Β° F (#43 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.9Β° F (#46 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#56 highest; 0.2% below 100-year average)
Hurricane season begins in June, but peaks in September. In 1935, the northern Atlantic was slammed by the worst hurricane on record at the time. Florida experienced the most damage. The storm hit the Florida Keys as a Category 5 hurricane, traveled northward along the west coast of Florida, and then continued northeastward across the southeastern United States.
Minnesota Historical Society/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
1936: An extremely hot summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 74.0Β° F (#1 warmest year; 3.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 87.9Β° F (#1 warmest year; 4.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.1Β° F (#13 warmest year; 2.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 6.4" (#101 highest; 22.7% below 100-year average)
This extremely warm year corresponded with an equally hot summer. The United States experienced rare warm summer temperatures and widespread drought in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest.
Central Press/Hulton Archive // Getty Images
1937: A warm, dry Midwestern summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.7Β° F (#19 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.8Β° F (#17 warmest year; 1.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.5Β° F (#21 warmest year; 1.9% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#58 highest; 0.5% below 100-year average)
The U.S. experienced a warmer than average year. In the summer, hot temperatures with some drought conditions in the Midwest were bookended by anomalously cold weather in both the Canadian Maritimes and the Caribbean.
Weegee(Arthur Fellig)/International Center of Photography // Getty Images
1938: An average summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.1Β° F (#37 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#34 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.0Β° F (#44 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#48 highest; 2.4% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1938 was the middle of a sandwich of very average temperatures in the United States. In contrast, the disproportionately hot summer temperatures were in Europe, including Scandinavia and the western portion of Russia.
CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images
1939: A dry summer in the breadbasket
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.1Β° F (#35 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.5Β° F (#20 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#54 warmest year; 0.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.4" (#51 highest; 0.8% above 100-year average)
Although the temperatures were warmer than average, the summer of 1939 wasnβt exceptionally hot. There were some severe drought conditions in parts of the breadbasket and upper Midwest.
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Fred Morley/Hulton Archive // Getty Images
1940: Drought in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#45 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.3Β° F (#29 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.6Β° F (#59 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#50 highest; 1.6% above 100-year average)
In 1940, temperatures around the United States were just about average overall. In the Midwest, drought conditions were concentrated in Kansas and Nebraska.
Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images
1941: A wild mix of dry and wet
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.3Β° F (#69 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.8Β° F (#81 warmest year; 0.7% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#53 warmest year; 0.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.7" (#3 highest; 16.9% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1941 was very polarized even within the United States. In the Southwest, there were colder-than-usual temperatures and much heavier precipitation. In the Midwest and parts of the South, people experienced warmer temperatures and extreme drought conditions.
Hulton Archive // Getty Images
1942: A cooler, wetter summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.2Β° F (#73 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.1Β° F (#78 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.4Β° F (#68 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.1" (#16 highest; 9.9% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1942 was the cold centerpiece of a colder-than-average year. There was heavier than usual precipitation across the entire breadth of the country in the Midwest, with pockets of extreme drought in the eastern United States.
Universal History Archive // Getty Images
1943: A warmer, drier summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.2Β° F (#33 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.3Β° F (#30 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#41 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.0" (#77 highest; 4.3% below 100-year average)
In 1943, temperatures were higher than usual during the year, but in a very marbled mixture around the United States and in the rest of the world. In the South, conditions were on the drier side, and in the Midwest and Pacific Northwest, there was more precipitation than usual.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1944: A cooler, average summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.1Β° F (#78 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#68 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.8Β° F (#88 warmest year; 1.0% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#58 highest; 0.5% below 100-year average)
Temperatures in the summer of 1944 balanced out to an overall βaverageβ value, but the Midwest was colder and wetter, while Indiana and Ohio experienced higher temperatures and drought. The same mixed bag repeated around the world.
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Bettman // Getty Images
1945: A cooler, wetter summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.3Β° F (#97 warmest year; 1.5% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.2Β° F (#92 warmest year; 1.4% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.4Β° F (#96 warmest year; 1.7% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.1" (#18 highest; 8.9% above 100-year average)
The overall weather in 1945 was much colder than usual. That translated to a colder, much wetter summer around almost the entire continental United States.
Science & Society Picture Library // Getty Images
1946: A cooler, drier summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.1Β° F (#77 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.3Β° F (#70 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.9Β° F (#86 warmest year; 0.9% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.0" (#76 highest; 3.5% below 100-year average)
After the cold, wet summer of 1945, the weather in 1946 reverted to the mean. In the summer, that translated to pockets of high and low precipitation around the United States as well as temperatures that ping-ponged around the average mark.
Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images
1947: A rainy summer in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.2Β° F (#75 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.2Β° F (#74 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.2Β° F (#77 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#63 highest; 1.3% below 100-year average)
In 1947, the United States was colder than usual and the hottest anomalous temperatures throughout the summer were in Europe. The Midwest experienced much heavier precipitation than average, as did upstate New York.
Lambert // Getty Images
1948: Wet and dry
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.4Β° F (#66 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.5Β° F (#62 warmest year; 0.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.3Β° F (#74 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#46 highest; 2.5% above 100-year average)
The temperatures overall were very average in 1948, just a shade colder than usual. That translated to warmer temperatures along the southern United States that summer and colder temperatures along the Pacific coast, with extreme precipitation there and some drought conditions in the Midwest.
Rae Russell // Getty Images
1949: An average summer, on the wet side
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.9Β° F (#50 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.9Β° F (#46 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#52 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#31 highest; 5.4% above 100-year average)
The temperature was almost exactly on average during 1949, including the summer. Within the continental United States, that meant a little cold with a lot of precipitation along the entire southern U.S. and some warmer and even drought conditions along the entire northern U.S.
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Bettman // Getty Images
1950: A cool and wet summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 69.7Β° F (#101 warmest year; 2.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.8Β° F (#97 warmest year; 1.9% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 56.7Β° F (#102 warmest year; 3.0% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.2" (#14 highest; 10.7% above 100-year average)
In 1950, the overall temperature was much colder than average for the year. But in the summer, there were pockets of heavy rainfall and cold temperatures and other places with drought conditions and a warmer summer.
Kirn Vintage Stock/Corbis via Getty Images
1951: Heavy rain in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.7Β° F (#86 warmest year; 0.9% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.7Β° F (#83 warmest year; 0.8% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.8Β° F (#89 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.9" (#24 highest; 7.0% above 100-year average)
During the overall cold temperatures of 1951, the summer was a mix of hotter and colder than usual. Indeed, there was heavy rainfall in Kansas and Nebraska at the same time as extreme drought in parts of neighboring Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico.
Found Images Holding Inc. // Getty Images
1952: Drought in Texas
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.6Β° F (#22 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.0Β° F (#14 warmest year; 1.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#39 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.2" (#93 highest; 13.3% below 100-year average)
The entire country had hotter-than-usual temperatures during the summer of 1952. On top of that, Texas in particular had extreme drought that lasted for much of the year.
Cincinnati Museum Center // Getty Images
1953: El Nino begins
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.2Β° F (#34 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.5Β° F (#23 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#49 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.5" (#88 highest; 10.1% below 100-year average)
In 1953, an El Nino phenomenon circled the world, lasting into 1954. Warmer than usual ocean currents spread warm temperatures and milder conditions around the world.
Steven Gottlieb/Corbis Historical // Getty Images
1954: An emerging La Nina
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.2Β° F (#32 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.5Β° F (#22 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#48 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.0" (#96 highest; 15.5% below 100-year average)
A cold-water La Nina began in 1954 that didnβt end until 1956, creating unusual circumstances for precipitation and other consequences around the world. But the summer of 1954 was still warmer than usual, proportionally more so than the following two summers.
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Debrocke Classic Stock // Getty Images
1955: Hurricane Janet slams the Caribbean
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.6Β° F (#60 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#53 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.6Β° F (#61 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#70 highest; 2.3% below 100-year average)
Hurricane Janet struck the upper Caribbean in September 1955. The Category 5 hurricane also made landfall on mainland Mexico.
American Stock Archive // Getty Images
1956: Drought and heat in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.7Β° F (#58 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#36 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.3Β° F (#74 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.2" (#94 highest; 13.5% below 100-year average)
The average temperature in 1956 was overall pretty normal, but the central United Statesβincluding parts of the Midwestβexperienced higher than usual summer temperatures and extreme drought conditions. That drought extended southward into Texas and the Southwest.
ullstein bild Dtl. // Getty Images
1957: A warm El Nino
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.5Β° F (#62 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.5Β° F (#63 warmest year; 0.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#71 highest; 2.4% below 100-year average)
An El Nino phenomenon warmed the oceans during the summer of 1957 and through part of 1958. It caused widespread effects far from the original current and affected the entire world.
Everett Collection // Shutterstock
1958: Continuing El Nino effects
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.3Β° F (#69 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.1Β° F (#76 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.5Β° F (#65 warmest year; 0.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.5" (#7 highest; 13.7% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1958 began with the tail of one El Nino and ended with signs of a brief resurgence of the same. By the end of 1958, the effect picked up and lasted into spring of 1959.
RGallianos // Shutterstock
1959: Warm and sometimes dry
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.2Β° F (#30 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.4Β° F (#25 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#38 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#55 highest; 0.0% below 100-year average)
The summer of 1959 was warmer than usual across most of the United States and colder than usual across all of Canada. There were drought conditions in the Southwest and precipitation to the point of flooding in southern Florida.
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H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1960: Drought in Wyoming
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.7Β° F (#56 warmest year; 0.5% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.1Β° F (#40 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.4Β° F (#68 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#65 highest; 1.4% below 100-year average)
In the summer of 1960, there were severe drought conditions across parts of Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana. That summer, the most anomalously warm temperatures were at the northernmost reaches of Canada, Europe, and Russia.
Classic Stock // Getty Images
1961: Hurricane Esther and Hattie
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.8Β° F (#52 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.0Β° F (#44 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#38 highest; 4.0% above 100-year average)
Hurricane Esther swirled off the coast of New England as a Category 5 hurricane before weakening as it approached land. Fortunately, the damage was mild compared to the initial force of the storm. Hurricane Hattie struck the same year, affecting the British Honduras.
Lambert // Getty Images
1962: Heavy rain in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.7Β° F (#87 warmest year; 1.0% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.9Β° F (#80 warmest year; 0.6% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.5Β° F (#95 warmest year; 1.5% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#68 highest; 1.9% below 100-year average)
This was a wet summer for the northern Midwest, where lower than usual temperatures accompanied the heavy rainfall. In the South, including both Texas and Florida, there were some drought conditions.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1963: Ocean current affairs
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.4Β° F (#64 warmest year; 0.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#66 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.5Β° F (#66 warmest year; 0.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.0" (#77 highest; 4.3% below 100-year average)
In the summer of 1963, the world experienced consequences of a brief El Nino before whiplashing with a La Nina in 1964 and another El Nino in 1965. The central United States was warmer than usual while both coasts were colder.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1964: Cooler around the world
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.1Β° F (#76 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.1Β° F (#77 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.2Β° F (#79 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#57 highest; 0.4% below 100-year average)
The whole world was anomalously cold during the summer of 1964, with an exception in the center of the United States. There, temperatures were slightly warmer and induced some drought conditions in the Midwest.
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Pictorial Parade // Getty Images
1965: Staying cool goes global
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.2Β° F (#99 warmest year; 1.7% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.8Β° F (#98 warmest year; 1.9% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.6Β° F (#94 warmest year; 1.4% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#31 highest; 5.4% above 100-year average)
In one of the coldest summers in this 100-year range, much of the world was also experiencing unseasonably cold temperatures. The northeastern United States experienced extreme drought conditions while most of the western half of the nation was drenched.
Aladdin Color Inc/Corbis Historical // Getty Images
1966: A dry, cool summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.3Β° F (#68 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#64 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.2Β° F (#78 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.8" (#81 highest; 6.7% below 100-year average)
During a low-average summer, the United States was joined by mostly mild temperatures around the rest of the world. Still, there were drought conditions in large pockets of the United States.
Lambert // Getty Images
1967: A cool summer with mixed rain
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.4Β° F (#93 warmest year; 1.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.1Β° F (#93 warmest year; 1.5% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.7Β° F (#92 warmest year; 1.2% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.0" (#21 highest; 7.9% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1967 was colder than usual in the United States as well as much of the rest of the world, with hotter temperatures in Canada and along northern Russia. A drought in Texas early in the season transitioned to a wetter season in the Rocky Mountain states.
Robert Abbott Sengstacke // Getty Images
1968: Dry and cool in the US
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.7Β° F (#89 warmest year; 1.0% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.3Β° F (#91 warmest year; 1.3% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.0Β° F (#81 warmest year; 0.7% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#31 highest; 5.4% above 100-year average)
The United States and much of the rest of the world experienced a colder than usual summer in 1968. In fact, Alaska had some of the only anomalously warm data in the entire United States.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1969: Hurricane Camille damages the Gulf
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.4Β° F (#65 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.3Β° F (#72 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.5Β° F (#64 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#35 highest; 4.7% above 100-year average)
Hurricane Camille pummeled the Gulf Coast in August of 1969, focused on coastal Mississippi. The storm weakened as it passed overland and returned to nearly full strength again in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Ralph Ackerman // Getty Images
1970: A warm and dry summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#39 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#31 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.8Β° F (#47 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.6" (#86 highest; 9.3% below 100-year average)
The summer of 1970 was a little above average temperature. Everywhere in the United States had basically normal weather except for a few cold pockets, including one in southern California.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1971: Heavy rain in the Rockies
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.3Β° F (#71 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.3Β° F (#70 warmest year; 0.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.2Β° F (#76 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#58 highest; 0.5% below 100-year average)
The summer of 1971 saw below average temperatures around almost the whole world. In the United States, that included very wet weather in the Rocky Mountains and drought conditions extending down into Texas.
H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1972: Rainy days in the north
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.7Β° F (#88 warmest year; 1.0% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.5Β° F (#87 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.9Β° F (#87 warmest year; 0.9% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#37 highest; 4.2% above 100-year average)
In the overall cool summer of 1972, the United States experienced lower-than-average temperatures that matched much of the world except unseasonably warm parts of Europe. Much of the northern United States experienced heavier rainfall than usual, and the Southwest experienced some drought conditions.
Ira Gay Sealy/Denver Post // Getty Images
1973: Welcoming a long La Nina
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.6Β° F (#61 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.6Β° F (#60 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#74 highest; 3.0% below 100-year average)
A cold-water La Nina event began in early 1973 and lasted a full three years. In the low-average temperatures of the summer of 1973, the United States experienced heavy rainfall almost everywhere but the Pacific Northwest, where there were drought conditions.
Classic Stock // Getty Images
1974: Hurricane Fifi/Orlene
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.0Β° F (#83 warmest year; 0.6% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.2Β° F (#73 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.7Β° F (#93 warmest year; 1.2% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#63 highest; 1.3% below 100-year average)
Hurricane Fifi , which later was named Hurricane Orlene, struck the Caribbean and Central America in 1974. The relatively low-power Category 2 storm caused more than 8,000 deaths due to flooding and other secondary effects.
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Mirrorpix // Getty Images
1975: Heavy rain in Montana
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.9Β° F (#84 warmest year; 0.7% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.4Β° F (#89 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.3Β° F (#72 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.1" (#17 highest; 9.5% above 100-year average)
A stripe of high temperatures traced across Canada and into Europe during the summer of 1975, but the rest of the world was colder than usual. Into that mix, the southern United States experienced heavy rainfall, as didβof all placesβMontana.
Classic Stock // Getty Images
1976: Extreme drought in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.5Β° F (#92 warmest year; 1.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.6Β° F (#84 warmest year; 0.9% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.3Β° F (#98 warmest year; 1.9% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.5" (#87 highest; 9.7% below 100-year average)
Much of the world experienced colder than usual temperatures in the summer of 1976, with a large warm exception for westernmost Europe and the United Kingdom. In the U.S., a drought began and spread in the upper Midwest, reaching extreme conditions by the end of the summer.
Classic Stock // Getty Images
1977: A worsening drought
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.2Β° F (#31 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.0Β° F (#42 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#26 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.6" (#41 highest; 3.4% above 100-year average)
The drought that began in 1976 grew and intensified in the summer of 1977. Canada was unseasonably cool, but the United States and a band that extended all the way through western Canada into Alaska were unseasonably warm and mostly vulnerable to drought.
Barbara Alper // Getty Images
1978: A mild and average summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.5Β° F (#63 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#54 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.4Β° F (#67 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#74 highest; 3.0% below 100-year average)
After the previous severe summers, 1978 was mild and mellow. The temperature was low-average despite a colder trend in much of the rest of the world, and just small pockets experienced heavy precipitation or drought conditions.
Duane Howell/Denver Post // Getty Images
1979: Hurricane David strikes
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.6Β° F (#90 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.4Β° F (#90 warmest year; 1.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.9Β° F (#85 warmest year; 0.9% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#27 highest; 6.1% above 100-year average)
Hurricane David made landfall in August and September of 1979. The powerful Category 5 hurricane caused more than 2,000 deaths in the Caribbean and United States.
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San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers // Getty Images
1980: Hurricane Allen and extreme heat
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.4Β° F (#25 warmest year; 1.4% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.8Β° F (#18 warmest year; 1.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#42 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 6.9" (#100 highest; 17.7% below 100-year average)
The summer of 1980 was foul for many Americans, with a sustained heat wave in Texas followed by record-setting Hurricane Allen. Even the hurricane was a fluke, originating in the Cape Verde Islands near Africa and reaching record high wind speeds until hitting the United States over Brownsville, Texas.
Denver Post via Getty Images
1981: A wet, mild summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#45 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#56 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#28 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.3" (#12 highest; 11.3% above 100-year average)
The overall temperature in 1981 was about average, with peaks and valleys around the nation that matched the heterogeneous mix around the world. A drought that blanketed the Midwest from top to bottom let up during the beginning of the summer.
Lyn Alweis/Denver Post // Getty Images
1982: Another El Nino
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.5Β° F (#91 warmest year; 1.2% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.9Β° F (#96 warmest year; 1.7% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.1Β° F (#80 warmest year; 0.5% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#29 highest; 5.9% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1982 was marked by an El Nino system that formed in March. The warm currents rippled into world weather, including milder hurricane seasons and changes in precipitation. The phenomenon lasted into May 1983.
Barbara Alper // Getty Images
1983: A continuing El Nino
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.1Β° F (#38 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.9Β° F (#49 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.2Β° F (#33 warmest year; 1.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.4" (#89 highest; 11.1% below 100-year average)
One of the strongest ever El Nino systems formed in late 1982, leading to a high precipitation summer in 1983. The rest of the world continued to experience those effects as well.
Joe Sohm/Visions of America/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
1984: Heavy rain in the West
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.6Β° F (#59 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#68 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.9Β° F (#45 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#66 highest; 1.6% below 100-year average)
The summer of 1984 was marked by stark areas of colder and warmer-than-average temperatures around the world. Within the United States, heavy precipitation fell in the western half.
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Todd Gipstein/Corbis Histrorical // Getty Images
1985: Destructive Hurricane Gloria
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.1Β° F (#80 warmest year; 0.5% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.2Β° F (#75 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.0Β° F (#84 warmest year; 0.8% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#61 highest; 0.6% below 100-year average)
Hurricane Gloria was βjustβ a Category 4 storm, but when it struck New York City in September 1985, it was the first storm to do so in more than a decade. It moved south and also struck the Carolinas.
John Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
1986: Dry conditions in the South
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.9Β° F (#49 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#54 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.2Β° F (#36 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.6" (#41 highest; 3.4% above 100-year average)
In the average-temperature summer of 1986, the United States had some areas of warm temperatures and some of lower. Drought conditions affected the South, and the Midwest grew wetter as the summer progressed.
Alfred Gescheidt // Getty Images
1987: Average across the board
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.8Β° F (#53 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.0Β° F (#43 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.4" (#53 highest; 0.7% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1987 worked out to average temperatures, but combined areas that were very different. The central United States experienced higher than usual precipitation while each coast experienced some drought conditions.
picture alliance // Getty Images
1988: Hurricane Gilbert clears a path
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.1Β° F (#11 warmest year; 2.4% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.7Β° F (#4 warmest year; 2.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.5Β° F (#21 warmest year; 1.9% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 6.9" (#99 highest; 17.3% below 100-year average)
Gigantic Hurricane Gilbert struck the Caribbean and Mexico before passing over and into the Midwestern United States. Gilbert caused massive destruction and the storm name was retired after 1988.
John Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
1989: A warm and cold combo
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.2Β° F (#73 warmest year; 0.3% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.8Β° F (#82 warmest year; 0.8% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#55 warmest year; 0.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.4" (#9 highest; 12.9% above 100-year average)
Most of the U.S. experienced average temperatures during the summer of 1989. The overall temperature was brought down by the central United States, where cold temperatures combined, improbably, with drought conditions.
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John Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
1990: Widespread drought conditions
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.9Β° F (#47 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#52 warmest year; 0.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.2Β° F (#34 warmest year; 1.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#73 highest; 2.8% below 100-year average)
The western United States and most of Florida experienced rolling drought conditions during the summer of 1990. At the same time, heavy rain fell on the Rust Belt from the Chicago area all the way through Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Camerique/ClassicStock // Getty Images
1991: Heavy rain in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#40 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.6Β° F (#60 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.4Β° F (#25 warmest year; 1.7% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#69 highest; 2.2% below 100-year average)
Most of both the United States and Canada were warmer than average in the summer of 1991. Areas of drought appeared in the South and elsewhere, with heavy rain in the Midwest and Southwest as the summer continued.
Douglas Peebles // Getty Images
1992: Hurricane Andrew strikes Florida
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 69.5Β° F (#102 warmest year; 2.6% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 81.7Β° F (#102 warmest year; 3.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 57.3Β° F (#100 warmest year; 2.0% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.9" (#2 highest; 19.5% above 100-year average)
In August 1992, Hurricane Andrew tore a swath across the Caribbean, Florida, and Louisiana. After causing more than $26 billion worth of damage in the United States and dozens of deaths, Andrew was retired from hurricane naming.
Independent Picture Group/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
1993: A rainy summer in the Southwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.4Β° F (#94 warmest year; 1.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.5Β° F (#100 warmest year; 2.2% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.3Β° F (#71 warmest year; 0.2% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.7" (#4 highest; 16.3% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1993 continued a very wet and cool year in the United States. The high precipitation touched almost all regions, including the desert Southwest.
John Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
1994: Extreme drought and heavy rain
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.3Β° F (#29 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.2Β° F (#31 warmest year; 1.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#30 warmest year; 1.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#46 highest; 2.5% above 100-year average)
The summer of 1994 was warm overall, but represented a split in the United States, where the western half was warm and the eastern portion was cooler. The West had areas of extreme drought while the Midwest had heavy rain.
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Justin Sullivan // Getty Images
1995: Hurricanes Opal, Luis, and Marilyn
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.8Β° F (#53 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.5Β° F (#61 warmest year; 0.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#37 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.5" (#45 highest; 2.6% above 100-year average)
As part of a very packed hurricane season, Hurricane Opal struck Mexico and the southern United States. Hurricanes Luis and Marilyn also struck and heavily damaged islands in the Caribbean.
Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis Historical // Getty Images
1996: Heavy rain in the Northwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#42 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.7Β° F (#50 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.2Β° F (#32 warmest year; 1.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#38 highest; 4.0% above 100-year average)
In the United States, the summer of 1996 presented average temperatures with fewer than usual extreme temperatures around the world. There was heavy rain in the Northwest and severe drought conditions in the Southwest.
Joe Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
1997: A huge El Nino
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.1Β° F (#78 warmest year; 0.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.5Β° F (#87 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.7Β° F (#56 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#30 highest; 5.6% above 100-year average)
Children born in 1997 were blessed by one of the most newsmaking weather events in modern memory, beginning in April of 1997 and continuing for the next year. One of the most powerful El Nino warm current phenomena ever recorded lashed the world with severe and unseasonable weather all year.
Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
1998: Deadly Hurricane Mitch
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.6Β° F (#23 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.1Β° F (#37 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.0Β° F (#15 warmest year; 2.6% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.6" (#41 highest; 3.4% above 100-year average)
Hurricane Mitch struck later in the fall of 1998 and killed more than 10,000 people in Central America, making it one of the deadliest hurricanes in recorded history. And following the powerful 1997 El Nino, 1998 brought the first of a nearly three-year La Nina phenomenon.
Robert Lachmann/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
1999: Drought in the East
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.8Β° F (#51 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.4Β° F (#64 warmest year; 0.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#31 warmest year; 1.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.2" (#66 highest; 1.6% below 100-year average)
In 1999, the summer temperatures were average, but represented a split within the United States. The warmer eastern half experienced some drought conditions while the cooler central and western portions experienced more precipitation.
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Camerique/ClassicStock // Getty Images
2000: Even Antarctica is warm
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.3Β° F (#28 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.3Β° F (#28 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.3Β° F (#26 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.7" (#82 highest; 7.9% below 100-year average)
The summer of 2000 was hot and dry, with drought conditions across much of the United States. The same was true around much of the world, including unseasonably extreme temperatures in Antarctica.
Joel P. Lugavere/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2001: Extremely wet in the Midwest
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.7Β° F (#20 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.5Β° F (#20 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.8Β° F (#17 warmest year; 2.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.3" (#62 highest; 0.8% below 100-year average)
The year 2001 saw another warm summer, with high temperatures around the country, but concentrated in the West. There were drought conditions in the West and along the Atlantic coast, with some very wet portions of the Midwest in between.
Ken Lubas/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2002: Widespread droughts around the US
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.2Β° F (#10 warmest year; 2.5% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.2Β° F (#11 warmest year; 2.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.1Β° F (#11 warmest year; 3.0% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.6" (#85 highest; 9.1% below 100-year average)
The summer of 2002 was very warm around the United States. Because of that, the western half of the nation and much of the South experienced extreme drought conditions.
Ricardo DeAratanha/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2003: Heavy damage from Hurricane Isabel
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.7Β° F (#17 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.6Β° F (#19 warmest year; 1.4% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.9Β° F (#16 warmest year; 2.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.7" (#38 highest; 4.0% above 100-year average)
Hurricane Isabel struck and damaged much of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, causing deaths in both the United States and Canada. The storm did more than $3 billion in damage that year.
Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2004: Hurricane Ivan damages the Caribbean
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 70.4Β° F (#95 warmest year; 1.4% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 82.7Β° F (#99 warmest year; 2.0% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.0Β° F (#82 warmest year; 0.7% below 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.6" (#5 highest; 15.4% above 100-year average)
Category 5 Hurricane Ivan struck and heavily damaged islands in the Caribbean like Jamaica and Grenada before eventually landing in Florida. The name Ivan was retired after 2004.
Joe Sohm/Visions of America // Getty Images
2005: Hurricane Katrina strikes
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.6Β° F (#21 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.3Β° F (#27 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.8Β° F (#17 warmest year; 2.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#27 highest; 6.1% above 100-year average)
In August 2005, destructive Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and caused more than 1,000 deaths and over $100 billion in damage. The legacy of the many deaths and extensive damage to New Orleansβ infrastructureβincluding its fragile levee systemβpersists today.
John Greim/Lightrocket // Getty Images
2006: Extreme drought in the South
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.5Β° F (#7 warmest year; 2.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.6Β° F (#6 warmest year; 2.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.4Β° F (#7 warmest year; 3.5% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.8" (#79 highest; 6.0% below 100-year average)
The hot summer of 2006 registered as one of the highest above average in this list. The summer was marked by extreme drought conditions in much of the southern half of the nation.
Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2007: Giant Hurricane Dean
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.1Β° F (#13 warmest year; 2.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.0Β° F (#15 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.2Β° F (#10 warmest year; 3.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.4" (#51 highest; 0.8% above 100-year average)
In August 2007, huge Hurricane Dean swept through the Caribbean. Although the Category 5 storm killed dozens of people and caused a lot of harm, it missed many of the most populated areas and caused less damage than experts feared.
Construction Photograph/Avalon/Hulton Archive // Getty Images
2008: A rainy Midwestern summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.0Β° F (#40 warmest year; 0.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.9Β° F (#48 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.1Β° F (#40 warmest year; 1.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.9" (#26 highest; 6.4% above 100-year average)
The overall temperatures of the summer of 2008 worked out to about average. The coasts were warm and dry, while the Midwest was drenched with heavy rain.
Lightrocket // Getty Images
2009: Droughts on the coasts
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.0Β° F (#81 warmest year; 0.5% below 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.5Β° F (#86 warmest year; 1.1% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 58.5Β° F (#63 warmest year; 0.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.8" (#31 highest; 5.4% above 100-year average)
The overall temperatures in the summer of 2009 were cooler than average. The southern edge of the country experienced drought conditions while the greater Midwest experienced heavy rain all summer.
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Jeff Greenburg/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
2010: A hot, dry southern summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.1Β° F (#12 warmest year; 2.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.5Β° F (#23 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.7Β° F (#4 warmest year; 3.9% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.3" (#10 highest; 12.0% above 100-year average)
In a quite warm summer, the hottest extremes were in the eastern half of the United States. There were also moderate drought conditions in part of the South.
Glenn Koenig/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2011: Very warm and very divided
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.7Β° F (#4 warmest year; 3.1% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.7Β° F (#5 warmest year; 2.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.7Β° F (#5 warmest year; 3.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.4" (#90 highest; 11.5% below 100-year average)
The summer of 2011 was extreme in temperature and in precipitation. Temperatures around the United States were all higher than average. While the northern half of the country experienced heavy rain, the southern half experienced extreme drought.
Education Images/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
2012: Dry conditions in the Rockies
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.7Β° F (#3 warmest year; 3.2% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 87.2Β° F (#3 warmest year; 3.3% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.2Β° F (#9 warmest year; 3.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 7.2" (#92 highest; 13.2% below 100-year average)
The summer of 2012 is one of the warmest and driest on record. The Rocky Mountain states experienced extreme drought conditions for most of the summer.
Education Images/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
2013: Drought in the West
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.5Β° F (#24 warmest year; 1.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.9Β° F (#45 warmest year; 0.7% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.1Β° F (#12 warmest year; 2.9% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.2" (#13 highest; 11.1% above 100-year average)
Temperatures were high-average in the summer of 2013. Drought conditions continued in the western United States, which experienced higher temperatures than the eastern half.
Andia/Universal Images Group // Getty Images
2014: Hurricane Odile hits Mexico
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 71.7Β° F (#57 warmest year; 0.4% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 83.9Β° F (#79 warmest year; 0.5% below 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.5Β° F (#24 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.4" (#8 highest; 13.0% above 100-year average)
Hurricane Odile struck the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur in September 2014. The storm caused damage and some deaths in Mexico before weakening and traveling across the southwestern United States.
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Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2015: A large El Nino
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.8Β° F (#16 warmest year; 1.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.1Β° F (#37 warmest year; 0.9% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.3Β° F (#8 warmest year; 3.3% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.2" (#15 highest; 10.5% above 100-year average)
An El Nino began at the end of 2014 and continued through all of 2015. The ENSO blog likened it to a traffic rerouting on a global scale, causing unforeseen circumstances everywhere as a result of extensive changes and disruption.
Ken Lubas/Los Angeles Times // Getty Images
2016: Very hot with heavy rain
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.5Β° F (#8 warmest year; 2.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.2Β° F (#12 warmest year; 2.2% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.8Β° F (#3 warmest year; 4.1% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.9" (#25 highest; 6.6% above 100-year average)
The summer of 2016 brought temperatures up to the high range, in a year when global-reported extremes were also on the warm side. There were pockets of extreme drought in the United States, but the central U.S. was drenched with rain all summer long.
The Washington Post // Getty Images
2017: Hurricanes Irma and Maria
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.7Β° F (#18 warmest year; 1.8% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 85.4Β° F (#25 warmest year; 1.1% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.0Β° F (#14 warmest year; 2.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.3" (#11 highest; 11.7% above 100-year average)
Hurricanes Irma and Maria both reached Category 5 statusβIrma at the end of August and Maria at the end of September. Both storms were severe and caused extensive damage, and both names were retired from the hurricane names list.
Spencer Platt // Getty Images
2018: Extreme drought, heavy rain
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.5Β° F (#8 warmest year; 2.9% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.1Β° F (#13 warmest year; 2.0% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.9Β° F (#2 warmest year; 4.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.0" (#19 highest; 8.1% above 100-year average)
The summer of 2018 was one of the overall warmest on record. Even so, the high temperatures were accompanied by extensive extreme drought conditions in the West and heavy rain in the eastern United States.
Drew Angerer // Getty Images
2019: A cool, rainy Midwestern summer
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 72.4Β° F (#26 warmest year; 1.3% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 84.9Β° F (#47 warmest year; 0.6% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 59.8Β° F (#17 warmest year; 2.4% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.9" (#23 highest; 7.1% above 100-year average)
The summer of 2019 was high-average temperature, with an overall pattern of high temperatures on the coasts and a swatch of cooler temperatures down the middle. The central cool area was paired with heavy rain all summer and into the fall.
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Anna-Rose Gassot/AFP // Getty Images
2020: Extremes from east to west
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 73.5Β° F (#5 warmest year; 3.0% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.4Β° F (#9 warmest year; 2.4% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 60.7Β° F (#5 warmest year; 3.8% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 8.1" (#72 highest; 2.6% below 100-year average)
The summer of 2020 was the fourth hottest on record at the time, according to NOAA data. In August alone, the U.S. was battered with hurricanes, extensive wildfires in the West, heat waves, and a strong derecho across the Midwest.
Jessica Christian/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
2021: High average temperatures and Hurricane Ida
Updated
Sep 16, 2022
- Average summer temperature: 74.0Β° F (#1 warmest year; 3.6% above 100-year average)
- Maximum summer temperature: 86.5Β° F (#8 warmest year; 2.5% above 100-year average)
- Minimum summer temperature: 61.5Β° F (#1 warmest year; 5.2% above 100-year average)
- Average precipitation: 9.5" (#6 highest; 14.5% above 100-year average)
The summer of 2021 hit record warm temperatures with California, Idaho, and Nevada being among states with the highest temperatures. During the summer of 2021, Hurricane Ida struck the Gulf Coast and tropical storms Fred and Henri caused heavy amounts of rain across the East Coast. This resulted in significant flooding.
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