2026 Broke the Hottest Summer on Record in 132 Years

If the summer of 2026 felt unusually brutal, the numbers back you up. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the contiguous United States just endured the hottest summer on record.

NOAA announced on September 9 that meteorological summer, the period from June through August, averaged 74.4 degrees Fahrenheit across the contiguous United States, as reported by NewsATW and first covered by USA Today. That is 3.0 degrees above the historical average, and it beats the previous records, shared by the Dust Bowl summer of 1936 and the summer of 2021, by 0.4 degrees. Two of the hottest summers of this decade now rank above the hottest year of the Dust Bowl era, which makes 2026 the hottest summer on record by the official count. Agency scientists walked through the numbers again in NOAA's monthly U.S. and global climate briefing on September 17.

August did most of the damage on the way to the hottest summer on record. The month averaged 75.6 degrees nationwide, 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average, making it the hottest August ever measured. Average daytime highs reached 88.6 degrees, also a record. "Both August and summer were the warmest in the 132-year record," NOAA said in a statement. U.S. climate records go back to 1895, so the agency compared this summer against more than a century of data before declaring the hottest summer on record.

The Southwest took the worst of it

The heat was not spread evenly. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado each recorded their warmest summer ever. In Arizona, the average temperature hit 97 degrees, with 39 days topping 110 degrees and 121 days topping 100 degrees, and the state was expected to add to those totals as September wore on. California set its own marks during the hottest summer on record: its warmest August average temperature ever, along with record daytime maximum and nighttime minimum temperatures.

Alaska and Hawaii were not spared either, with both states recording their third-warmest summers on record. Most of the extra heat settled over the southern and western United States, while the Midwest, the Great Lakes region and the Northeast saw temperatures near or slightly above average. But the warm nights were the real story across much of the country. According to NOAA, much-above-average nighttime minimum temperatures covered most of the continental United States during the hottest summer on record, which meant homes and bodies got little relief after sunset.

Drought rode in with the heat

The record heat arrived alongside expanding drought. By September 1, drought covered 59.1 percent of the contiguous United States, an increase of more than 10 percentage points from early August, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. Nearly 60 percent of the country was in drought conditions as the hottest summer on record wound down.

Rainfall for the summer averaged 8.11 inches across the contiguous states, 0.21 inches below the 20th-century average, placing the season among the driest third on record. California received just 0.20 inches of precipitation for the entire summer, only 26 percent of its average, making it the state's fifth-driest summer ever and its driest since 2002. The pattern was uneven, though. The Ohio Valley and parts of the Midwest saw good rain while almost everywhere else received less than average.

Hawaii lived the opposite extreme. Hurricane Lala brought heavy rainfall that helped make August the state's second-wettest on record. Rainfall across the island chain from January through August ran more than three feet above the 1991-2020 average, making it the wettest year-to-date period on record there.

The globe was sweating too

The United States was not alone in the heat. Copernicus, the European Union's climate monitoring service, found that August 2026 was the hottest month ever recorded globally, tying July 2023, while the June-to-August period was the warmest Northern Hemisphere summer ever measured, tying 2024, according to a roundup of the summer climate data. NOAA's climate office likewise marked the close of the warmest Northern Hemisphere summer on record in its mid-September update.

And the heat has not packed up yet. Meteorological summer only covers June through August, which is how NOAA keeps its records tidy and comparable, but September has kept serving record-like warmth. San Antonio hit 100 degrees again in mid-September, and Arizona was expected to keep adding triple-digit days through the final weeks of the month. The official record may stop at August 31, but the effects of the hottest summer on record are still being felt. It has been a punishing stretch on multiple fronts: earlier this week, Japan raised interest rates to a 31-year high, another sign of how volatile the year has been for the global economy.