The Stats Are In: Summer 2023 Was Brutal For Much Of The United States

Much of the nation had a warmer than normal to '
hot summer this year, but the Ohio Valley was on
the cool side. The higher the number, the higher
the ranking for the state for heat compared to
other summers. The 129 in Louisiana means
they had their hottest summer in all
of the past 129 years. 

Heat waves were in the news all summer, including August. The United States numbers are in, revealing that overall the nation had its ninth hottest August on record. This is out of the past 129 years. 

The data comes from NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. That issue monthly reports on national and global climate data. 

The global report is just coming out today, Friday, September 13. Spoiler:  It'll tell us it's the world's hottest August on record. I'll have a much more detailed report on global August temperatures soon.

If that scenario plays out, it won't be weird, really. The United States comprises just 1.867 percent of the world's surface.  

Even in record hot months or years, a minority of areas are cooler.   So the U.S. can have a warm, but not record hot period while the rest of the world does.  

Ground zero for United States heat was Louisiana.  August was the warmest on record for Louisiana and Florida by a whopping 1.5 degrees. (Usually, if you break a monthly heat record, it's by a couple tenths of a degree. Mississippi was a strong runner up, also breaking is August record by half a degree.

Louisiana also recorded its driest August on record and its hottest summer on record. Yuck!

Vermont's August wasn't spectacularly warm or cold in either direction. Out of the past 129 years, Vermont's August was the 56th warmest. So I guess we escaped a lot of the heat that other places had. Of course we sort of paid for it with that torrid week earlier this month. 

Meteorological summer goes from June 1 through August 31, so now the data for the entire summer season is in. Over all, the United States had its 15th warmest summer out of past 129 years. Louisiana (surprise!) had its hottest summer on record.

Baton Rouge, Louisiana is the poster child of how awful the summer of 2023 was. Of course it was the hottest summer on record, with a mean temperature between June 1 and August 31 of 87.5 degrees.

Almost always, when a new seasonal record is set like that, it beats the old mark by only a couple tenths of a degree or so.  But Baton Rouge beat the hottest summer record by an incredible 2.9 degrees. Baton Rouge also set the record for the hottest month in the city's history with a mean temperature of 87.8 degrees. But that record was broken in August, with an average temperature of 90.3.

Baton Rouge also had the most days reaching at least 100 degrees (30 of 'em); most night staying at or above 80 degrees (27 total) and most consecutive days at or above 100 degrees (10 days, which happened twice this summer) 

Consider the Baton Rouge summer of '23 the next time you complain it's 90 degrees in humid here in Vermont. 

Elsewhere, Texas, Florida and New Mexico had one of their top two or three hottest summers. Mississippi, Washington and Oregon had one of their top 10 warmest summers in 2023.

At least some people got a break, though. Areas in and around the Ohio River Valley had a rather cool summer overall. West Virginia had its 32nd coolest summer out of the past 129 years. Kentucky had its 35th coolest summer. 

Vermont statistics for the summer were weird.  The summer of 2023 in Vermont was the 22nd warmest overall. But the average high temperature for the summer was the 50th coolest on record. Yet, more bizarrely, the average low temperature was the second warmest out of the 129 years they've been keeping track.  

Large parts of the nation had a wetter than normal 
summer (states in blue) The darkest blue in Wyoming,
Vermont and New Hampshire mean those states had
their wettest summer on record. States in brown
had an unusually dry summer

These odd stats are a reflection of what an oddly cloudy, humid summer we had. 

Cloudy, humid afternoons don't get very warm due to the lack of sun. Cloudy, humid nights tend to be warm, because the clouds hold in the heat. And humid air tends to prevent temperatures from dropping much, too. 

Speaking of clouds and humidity, Vermont as a whole had its wettest summer on record. Two other states, New Hampshire and Wyoming of all places also had their wettest summer. 

The rain wasn't that evenly distributed in Vermont. Looking at specific towns,  Montpelier certainly had its wettest summer, but Burlington didn't even make it into the top ten wettest. 

On top of all these hot summer statistics, it turns out the whole year so far has been a hot one in the United States. By my count hrough August, 28 states, including Vermont, are so far having one of their top 10 hottest years on record. (So far, Vermont's is third hottest). 

September so far has come in hot for Vermont, so we might move up in that hottest year ranking, depending upon how the rest of the year goes.