More Stats From June Confirm A Hot National/North American Month

The Lower 48 as a whole had the warmest June on record.
That includes eight states that were set records for hottest

 Yep, June in the United States was totally a hot one, confirms the National Centers for Environmental Information. 

The average temperature in the contiguous Lower 48 was 72.6 degrees, the hottest on record.  It surpassed the old June record set in 2016 by 0.9 degrees, the NCEI reported Friday.

As always, there were regional variations with some places closer to average than others, but added all together, you get the hottest June. 

No states were substantially cooler than average, but southern states from Texas to the Carolinas were close to average.

Eight states - Arizona, California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Utah - had their hottest June on record. Here in Vermont, we logged our third hottest June on record. This official data base covers the past 127 years. 

As abnormal as temperatures were, precipitation for the Lower 48 was right around average. Parts of the West, northern and central Plains and New England were really dry, while much of the South and parts of the Midwest were quite wet

South Dakota had its driest June on record. 

The NCEI will release global data for June, probably next week. Globally, it probably won't be the hottest June on record like in North America, but I bet it will core in the Top Five. 

Continuing the theme from June, this month has been quite hot again in the West. Record heat is again blasting a large area of the West Coast and Rockies.  Furnace Creek, California, in Death Valley, reached 130 degrees Friday, which at least ties the record for the hottest reliable temperature reading on Earth. 

(A widely reported world record of 134 degrees is probably not accurate).

In contrast to June, though, New England is off to a quite cool and wet July - though the heavy rains have avoided far northern New England.

New England, including here in Vermont, will turn much warmer - above normal for sure - next week,  though we will not be having record high temperatures. Just very toasty and stuffy and humid and crappy sleeping weather.