Another Climate Denying Canard Bites The Dust

Overall, the Lower 48 had its warmest summer on record.
The only cool places relative to average you can find
on this map are a few counties in Texas.

 When  you talk with somebody who denies the reality of climate change, you often get a "Yeah, but," and the describe some historic weather event many decades ago that was worse the some current nightmare.  

That argument takes a truism and twists it.  It is true there have always been weather extremes and you can always find some example of some terrible historic heat wave, flood, hurricane, etc. 

One of the anti-climate Yeah But arguments pretty much bit the dust this week.  That's the one where we're told that the nation's hottest summer on record  was way back in 1936 way back in the Dust Bowl era. 

That's supposed to be proof that summers aren't getting hotter. Or something.

Well, they can't use 1936 anymore. At least technically.  The hottest summer on record in the United States is - wait for it - 2021!

Though it might sound like it, I'm not gloating.  I, and probably everybody else, wish that 1936 was still the record holder. We don't hotter summers. They cause drought, heat deaths, heat illnesses, cause decreased productivity, raise energy costs.  Not good. 

This year  barely beat out 1936 by a whisker. Just 0.01 of a degree. So it's essentially a tie.

The stat about this summer being the United States' hottest summer comes from NOAA, who brought this up in their monthly climate summary for the nation.  Climatologists look at June 1 through August 31 to compare summers.  This one managed to end up at Number 1.

Temperatures usually aren't that far above or below normal in the summer compared to other seasons. And when you take three months of data, it usually averages out fairly close to normal.  The average temperature for the summer in the Lower 48 was 74.01 degrees or 2.4 degrees warmer than the long term average.

No states had a cooler than normal summer. The only places I could find that were on the cool side were a handful of counties in Texas.  Five states had their hottest summer and 16 states scored in the top 5.  

This summer's United States statistics also reflect something that's been happening in Vermont that I discussed the other day.  Much of this summer's heat was driven more by particularly toasty nights, especially in the East.

By the way, Vermont was one of two states to have their hottest August on record. The other state was across the river - New Hampshire.