Summer 2016 Was One of Hottest on Record in Lower 48 States, NOAA Says

Tom Moore
Published: September 8,2016
The United States sweated through one of its five hottest summers on record dating to the late 19th century, according to data released by NOAA.
For the Lower 48 states, June through August 2016 tied for the fifth-hottest such period in 122 years of records dating to 1895, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information August State of the Climate data issued Thursday.

Summer 2016 was a hot one for the East and West.
(NOAA/NCEI)

Every one of the Lower 48 states saw above-average temperatures this summer. California, Connecticut and Rhode Island set records for their hottest summer on record.

Alaska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and South Carolina all chalked up their second-hottest summer, while Florida, Georgia, Maryland and Virginia suffered through their third-hottest summer.

(MORE: Summer 2016 Was Record-Hottest In 45 U.S. Cities)

Contributing to this was a record-hot August in much of the Northeast.

Eight Northeast states had their hottest August on record, from Maryland and Delaware to New York and all of southern New England. Every East Coast state had one of their top-10 hottest Augusts.

The first eight months of 2016 were the third-hottest on record in the Lower 48, topped only by 2012 and 2006.

(MORE: Bad News For Fall Lovers: Peak Summer Temperatures Coming Later For Some)

Plot of January-August mean temperatures in the Lower 48 States from 1895-2016. A red circle highlights January-August 2016's mean temperature, the third warmest on record.
(NOAA/NCEI)

Summer Precipitation Highlights

Summer 2016 ranked as the 24th-wettest summer, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

It was a dry summer for the West and the Eastern Seaboard.
(NOAA/NCEI)

Eight states from the western Great Lakes to the Lower Mississippi Valley had one of their top-10 wettest summers.
Louisiana had its third-wettest summer and wettest August, hit hard by a record-setting and deadly flood event in August.
Much of the West and East Coast areas of the U.S. were dry. For the East Coast, the dry spell has been with them since January.
It was the second-wettest August in both Indiana and Illinois, and third-wettest August in Arkansas.
MORE: Flooding in Louisiana and Mississippi