The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed that June through August was the hottest summer on record for the contiguous United States. It beat the previous records, set in 1936 and 2021, by 0.4°F, and ran 3.0°F above the 20th century average. Records like this usually fall by hundredths of a degree.
The drought stats surprised me most. Almost 60% of the country was in drought by September 1, a jump of 10 percentage points in a single month. Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado all set or tied summer records, which puts the worst of it squarely in the Southwest.
The records this summer broke belonged to the Dust Bowl.
This was originally posted as a New Arrival in Making Canyon Grooves · The Catalog · №006, an issue of my weekly newsletter The Catalog. You can Subscribe for weekly insights, or get in touch to talk about what this means for your business.