E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSMore than half of the country experienced "moderate to exceptional" drought conditions at the end of July, the hottest month ever recorded. And the impact of this hot weather has been felt across the nation as crops shrivel and wildfires rage out of control. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
It may come as little surprise with this summer's sweaty nights and blistering days across much of the country, but July marked the hottest month on record for the contiguous United States, according to government scientists. Furthermore, drought now covers nearly 63 percent of the Lower 48 states, where average precipitation is 0.19 inch below average.
A bit of hope, though, was seen for some crops in the Midwest thanks to cooler temperatures and rain.
According to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature across the contiguous United States in July was 77.6 Fahrenheit, a full 3.3 degrees above the 20th century average.
The previous warmest July was in 1936, when the nation's average temperature was 77.4 degrees.
The hot July contributed to a record-warm first seven months of the year and the warmest 12-month period the nation has experienced since accurate record keeping started in 1895.
Virginia experienced its warmest July on record, with a statewide temperature a whopping 4 F above average. In all, 32 states had July temperatures among its 10 warmest, with seven states having their second warmest July on record.
While heat and extreme events such as drought and wildfires are often associated with global warming and climate change, it's unclear if the latest pattern is part of a much larger trend.
Related: Drought socks crops despite recent showers
"These events are kind of what we'd expect with climate change, we'd expect expanding drought, we'd expect warm, record breaking temperatures," Jake Crouch, a NOAA climate scientist, told NBC News. "But it's kind of hard to pinpoint this month or past several months as a telltale sign that climate change is happening. The drought is more of a local factor and isn't necessarily driven by large scale climate change, but is impacting local temperatures. But we've also seen an increase in U.S. temperatures overall."
Still, there's no doubt this summer is taking a human toll, with warmer nights making it difficult for some people to sleep, and causing physical stress, Crouch said.
And the drought rollls on, with drier-than-average conditions continuing across the Central Plains and Midwest. Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri had July precipitation totals ranking among their 10 driest.
Some rain and cooler temperatures in the drought-stricken Midwest, however, are expected to provide relief for late-season soybeans, but the change in the weather is arriving too late to help the already severely damaged corn crop, an agricultural meteorologist said on Wednesday.
"It's definitely better than what we've had but I'd be hesitant to call it a drought-buster. Longer-term outlooks still look like a return to warm and dry," said Jason Nicholls, meteorologist for AccuWeather.
Related: Blame blistering heat waves on global warming, study says
Nicholls said up to three-quarters of an inch of rain, with locally heavier amounts, was expected in roughly 75 percent of the Midwest from Wednesday through Friday morning, and a similar weather system is expected next week.
Though the heat can be uncomfortable, not everyone is complaining. “The heat is definitely a blessing for us after coming off the warm, dry winter without a lot of weather events,” Alan Ayers, general manager at Crisafulli Brothers Plumbing and Heating Contractors in Albany, told The Associated Press.
The 73-year-old company has seen an 18 percent increase in new air conditioner installations over last year and has its 16 technicians working long hours to install, replace and repair units taxed by the swelter.
A storm pattern in the Southwest contributed to California's fifth wettest July on record and Nevada experiencing its eighth wettest, NOAA said. Wetter-than-average conditions were also reported through the rest of the Southwest, along the western Gulf Coast, and through the Ohio Valley where West Virginia had its tenth wettest July.
The warm and dry conditions over a large swath of the United States were seen as ideal wildfire conditions, NOAA said. More than 2 million acres burned nationwide in July because of wildfires. That is nearly half a million acres above average, and the fourth most on record since 2000.
Over the weekend the fires that burned across the state damaged nearly 94,000 acres and on Monday a body was found in a Norman home. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Minister stands trial in international lesbian kidnap case
- Are nuns getting ready to spurn the Vatican?
- Girl, 6, found clinging to corpse in middle of lake
- Missing best friends found dead in New Jersey river
- Video: Athletes reveal the royal who makes them swoon
Follow US News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
A step outside my back door, to the north, the fields of corn are fairly green, and around 7 feet tall, however, there is no corn inside the shunks, all plant, and no corn. I have never seen this. The fields to the south, are stunted and dead.
Science, never said the earth was flat. It was the church who said that. They used a thing, called Inquisition.
To discredit, those who said it was round. Much of the same idea, is being used now. To prove that science is wrong.
Ready, what you say is true but to use it to discredit God is a mistake. Religion is humans reaching to God - forgiveness is God reaching to man. God will remind mankind who He is with what He created in the first place!!
The Bible says God sits above the circle of the earth, and never says it is flat, but infers that it is a globe. The Bible never mentions a lot of things like bacteria, or Quantum Mechanics or Physics. People make mistakes about things and science for sure is not infallible either.
Jim i PA: He will make himself known!! Well, He better hurry up or we won't be here....or maybe He's just watching this unfold, laughing His a** off.....what do you think?
Grandfather, he definitely does not move on our timing!!
This long hot summer is not caused by global warming. Prove that it is, using the Harry Reid method. No science is involved in claiming global warming, which is at best a hypothesis.
The scientists have proved it. It is only the ignorant, who pretend they know better, who deny.
There is no proof, only conjecture and predictions as proposed by slanted and biased computer models.
Correlation does not necessary imply causation.
Wally-1853299, and you have the knowledge and expertise to prove them wrong? Go ahead, I dare you.
Wally, we can't really "prove" the theory of evolution, but there is a mountain of evidence that life on Earth has evolved throughout the history of life on this planet. Likewise, there is a mountain of evidence for global warming. You can argue the details all you want, but this long hot summer is breaking records. Last summer was also unusually hot and dry.
How many record hot summers do you need before you start to admit there is a serious problem here?
Wally, saying there is no proof of global warming, begs the question, "what would you consider proof?" There is a mountain of evidence that the earth is warming. If that's not evidence, what is? (Don't really expect you to answer.)
Then SHOW ME the evidence....facts, figures, equations, articles, charts, graphs, the math....you know, the real scientific stuff that is at the heart of real science. A preponderance of real evidence instead of a consensus of opinions which are susceptible to political influence and bias.
wish we could send some of the rain in florida north to help you guys. we need it too, just not as badly.
And to the ignorant people who claim that the consensus of scientists in the 70s was that the world was cooling, that is also a myth. I'm guessing you heard this on fox news or Rush, but the vast majority of climate science findings and publishing are about the climate getting warmer and warmer.
Keep digging your heels in the sand so that we keep using more and more oil, because the suadis who own your propaganda machines are laughing and raking in their billion$!
40 years ago the concern was smog blocking the sun, & today it's CO2 augmenting the sun. Science has evolved ove the decades, unlike some of the folks posting here.
If we stop using Saudi oil, we can stop being their (female dogs). We could close the Straights of Hormuz, & let all of the Middle East terrorists starve to death.
Oh, yeah, we'd reduce our CO2 emissions too.
But the oil and defense industries who run our country would lose out...so that would never happen!
Huh. At this moment we may have the most important choice in our lives coming up in Nov.
So why suddenly is there not the smug anti-Romney headlines?
Hmmmmmmmm
Airborn7
Well according to the Right Wingers it's all Gods plan. I'm sure God told us to rape the entire earth for the profit and wealth of a handful of people. Isn't God all about just a few hundred people on the earth and the rest are just infidels Right!
We should know our place and not dare to match our puny little minds against the all knowing,and all wholly Right wingers.
Well, thank God we have Republicans to reassure us that global warming is junk science and we certainly shouldn't do anything about it that might cut into Exxon's profits. It's only a coincidence that they bankroll much of the GOP.
So what should be do about Gerry, what are the solutions, impress us with your superior wisdom.
You know the solutions Wally, but you are against them because you are told to be against them. Why? Because these solutions cut into the profits of those who tell you what to think!
Uh...I am an independent Stevo, no one tells me what to think, as opposed to sheep like you who will accept anything without your own investigation and research. So what should we do about it, or are we already past the tipping point.
One of the reasons so many people are anti-science may be : Some religions conclude that man is a totally retarded species incapable of reasoning out anything for themselves. Therefore, God appoints the all knowing,"self appointed", religious leaders to help us along and make decisions for us. Scientists came along with technology and an understanding of the universe, screwing up religion.
No human will ever deny God and His laws and get away with it in the end!! He offers foregivness not "self appointed" religions and leaders!! He will make himself known!!
The only science involved in global warming is political science. Or junk science...like East Anglia and that pair of hockey sticks.
Jim in PA, god is a he? Did you check under his tail to determine that?
So every country in the world who studies this, controls the findings of their scientists, all so that oil industries lose money and so other industries lose profits by not polluting the world? Is this your belief? Do you have any facts to back this up? Or are you being told to vote for big business at the cost of mother nature?
There's nothing political about gathering data. It's the inability to face facts leaving your intellect & courage exposed, such as they are.
I can't post links b/c I just signed up, but google "NOAA statewide ranks july 2009" and you will see that July 2009 was one of the coldest on record for the states that just endured 2012, the hottest July on record
Hey Jim do you have any facts to support your belief of getting away with not believing in God? Or, just like your opinions on global warming, they come from gut feeling or from your preacher?
I don't believe in your god, but my gut feeling is that when I die, I will rot in the ground; just like you will.
Hey, Wally...don't go disparaging hockey sticks....they didn't lie to you....they didn't make stuff up....Oh, Okay...I guess they are a couple of hockey sticks afterall....
Their may be no facts to support not believing in God, as there are no facts supporting a belief in God. Gods probably had their origins in man's attempts to understand lightning and thunder.
There is no such thing as global warming. It's just a leftist looney conspiracy. Just ask Rush Limbaugh. He knows all and will tell you so.
ihatetheguywhohatesliberals.com
LEFT, I was just going to address our misguided friend on the Right with the same name. You beat me to it. LOL
Not believing what scientists are currently saying doesn't make people anti-science at all. Science is far more than just long range weather and climate predicting. The simple fact is many people understand the earth is getting warmer, depending on where you measure, but believe it may be normal cyclically. They may also believe, as I do, that the sole human based cause is over population. Since no one is going to espouse a doctrine that calls for the world's population to be halved immediately its clear that this is all just bs political crap, since the only solution won't even be suggested and discussed, let alone enacted. KEN -- Glad you showed your stupidity but I consider myself very Conservative and yet I am an atheist. Idiot. STEVE -- You're all knowing and brilliant and yet you couldn't even provide one citation in support of your inane bashing. Yes, I'm aware that its because you're wrong.
JEFF, Atheist huh??? You'll fit in quite nicely with the GOP loons that now own the party. Good luck. LOL
Have you ever heard of carbon dioxide and as concentrations rise, it traps heat in the atmosphere? And humans are responsible for the rising concentration of CO2?
You are correct that overpopulation is a huge factor. I'm surprised you acknowledge it is caused by humans. and Jeff, all you have to do is Google the worlds history of temperatures to get your answers buddy. Knowledge and facts are not hard to come by if you actually want to learn.
For all your pretense of erudition, you were too lazy or ignorant to look into your own claims and see that not only were you wrong about "thousands of scientists" claiming there was a coming ice age in the 1970s, but the overwhelming majority of scientists in the 1970s were predicting global warming. I'll take you seriously when you acknowledge your false claim and say something worthwhile on this subject. So far you've been all hat and no cattle, and your "facts" are bogus.
The past shows us that climate change has occurred from the beginning of time and started well before human beings appeared on the scene. That tells me that climate change is just political bs. By the way if I take the temperature of Boston in the middle of that day in the city, which is a heat island, its going to be far higher than if I take the temperature in the middle of George C. Wright golf course under a tree, which is also Boston. Temperature readings are part of the politics. INTREPID -- I vote Republican simply because as a patriot I cannot vote for a Democrat. I vote for the lesser of two evils.
stevenso banned, re-reg of multiple accounter john stephens-2632671.
I hope we get some real comparisons between what is going on now and what went of during the 1930s. From what I understand, the 1930s were much worse than what we're seeing now - meaning recent years - (at least so far). We need to get away some from those with a 'climate change' agenda and get a real, scientific analysis going. My fear is those with a political agenda don't want to look closely at the 1930s since the data then would have led inescapeably to the conclusion that the world was heating up (which it wasn't)and drought would create a catastrophy by the 1940s or 1950s...which, of course, it didn't. There seems to be little good science in this whole debate...which is too bad. We deserve better....
Explain to us ignorant folks why the scientific analysis behind global warming is not real science. We all want to hear from a man who is smarter than thousands and thousands of scientists.
There is a great deal of good science on climate change. Hundreds of climate scientists around the world have been studying this for decades. Thousands of peer-reviewed scientific papers have been published. The reality of antrhopogenic climate change is becoming increasingly clear all the time.
As for the 1930's, it was indeed hot back then, but only in the United States, where tempreatures were equivalent to today. But globally the recent climate has been considerably warmer than the 1930s.
The 1930s were drier. In the atmosphere, temperature is a poor measure of heat (Google Professor Joseph Black). It takes much more heat to force a thin gas like water vapor, molecular weight 18, into a denser gas like air, average molecular weight 27. Humidity is a much better yardstick.
Yes it's counterintuitive, but snow is an indication of heat.
You're absolutely right. "Climate change" is an economic/political agenda. Along with carbon taxes, the same financial giants that engineered credit default swaps have also designed "carbon derivatives" and cap-and-trade systems that give intrinsic value to worthless pieces of paper....it's ingenuous.
Saddest part: They hijacked an environmental movement with good intentions - but now those good-intentioned people are just furthering an agenda.
Even better, they were able to get another wedge issue out of it. Believe in climate change? You're liberal. Don't believe in climate change? You're conservative.
Environmentalism is great.....but I'm sorry to break it to any self-proclaimed envronmentalists that climate change/global warming is a scam.
And how I love some comments on here. There was record cold in Alaska in June.....but that was ignored. And even better, as Musician666 argues - as so many do: Extreme heat? Climate change. Extreme cold? Climate change. Extreme drought? Climate change. Extreme rain? Climate change.
How can you argue against any of that? I guess the only way to prove climage change/global warming does not exist is to have absolutely perfect average weather all the time.
It might depend on what we would choose to call extreme weather events. There have been "extreme" weather events like floods, tornadoes, heavy monsoons, and bitterly cold and snowy winters since like...forever. The idea that climate change or global warming would consist of a lot of weather "extremes" doesn't seem to be in the details of the hypothesis. Gradualism seems the more likely scenario.
This summer has been very hot and dry here in parts of the US, but other parts of the country, and in other countries, it has been cold and wet. No evidence that this summer's weather is indicative of climate change, more likely the result of a waning La Nina.
OH NOOOOOOO it must be Global Warming LOL
Here in Tampa Bay area of Florida, this July was one of the coolest we have experienced in a number of years. I still think climate change is mostly the result of a natural cycle. I don't think we make that great of an impact on climate, yet, but it is good to put some regulations in place for the sake of our planet, anyway.
And this makes you so much smarter than thousands of scientists with expertise on the subject? This is based on a cooler than normal July in Tampa, Florida? You obviously are a genius.
Lame comeback normal, I know you can do better since you are so much smarter than us average bears.
America has been the bread basket for the world but with global warming that may well change.
The farmlands are heating up and drying out and that is only the beginning.
Have military will travel...
;-)
Hmm! Another article about global warming. No need to worry. In a few years we will be going through a cold snap and they will start hollering "Ice Age" coming, like they did in the 70's. Seriously people, do you really think the earth is going to stay constant without fluctuations in weather. The climate is in a constant state of change at different rates during different times. The study of rock layers would show that to be accurate. We have been able to track climate changes in real time for so few years that no one can attribute the heat wave and droughts we are having to global warming or green house gases or cows burping in the wind. For the life of me, I can't understand why everyone is getting so bent out of shape, just because the earth is having a bad year or two. About all we can do is start taking better care of the planet we live on and learn to live with the natural changes, like man has done since they've been here.
Are you honestly asking the mind-numbingly ignorant leftist half-wits a question and expecting an answer that can be quantified, is irrefutable and that can be substantiated by empirical FACT??!!!
Good luck with that Lacy!
LACY, yea, that's cause you know better that all those "elitists" with PHDs who've dedicated their lives to studying the climate. Must be nice to know everything about everything. I've got some money I want to invest in the Market, can you tell me where the Dow will be a month from now?
Yet more brilliant insight from Panter. He knows far more than 90% of the world's leading scientists and climatologists cause he's just so dang smart. He don't need no stinking fancy degree.
Think Lacy. Every extinction has been caused by the same condition; changes in the environment. Every one, no exceptions. Humans have no special pleading.
Have you ever considered actually reading about the science behind global warming and gaining some understanding behind it? Or is it just easier to just post an ignorant comment on something you do not understand and pretend you know better than thousands of scientists with expertise?
And yet another ignorant person too lazy to check the facts. In the 1970s, a few scientists predicted a cooling period (which the media, being notoriously bad at reporting science, pushed as an "Ice Age"). The overwhelming majority of scientists were predicting warming and the ones who predicted cooling recanted.
Stop being lazy and look something up before you repeat nonsense.
Well, Panther. It looks like you were right. Apparently, the rest of the posters on this thread are sheeple that would believe all the malarkey the government paid scientist tell them. And it is quite apparent none of them have ever picked up a science book or did any research on their own. Nor do they have any common sense.
INTREPID. My crystal ball tells me you should invest in a good mattress and put your money there. Would be much safer that way. LOL. Don't know better than those elitist scientist and they probably know less than you give them credit for.
DBK. You know me so well, don't you. You corrected me on the whole "Ice Age" comment. So why don't you be so kind as to give me proof refuting the rest of my comment.
There's no need for me to refute you when literally 97%+ of the scientific community, people who are actually educated in the study of climate, have already done so.
And yes, I know you. I've met intellectually lazy people all my life. It is pointless to respond when there are entire volumes that refute your silly pretenses. Go to Amazon.com and search forTop 10 Books on Climate Change and Sustainability.
DBK. The truth would suffice. You don't know me from Adam. And 97% of people like you who think they know everything, don't really know squat. Intellectually lazy! I have probably read more books than you have in your home. I have spent a lifetime reading and studying and I don't mean Gothic novels. Please take your holier-than-thou attitude to someone else. And try knowing a person before you claim to know them.
It's a good thing we haven't had thermometers for very long or the mindless man-made global warming half-wits would be reduced to sitting and spinning in a corner yammering to themselves.
The prediction of anthropogenic global warming is not based on the observed temperature record, but rather on our knowledge of how the climate system works, and the important role of carbon dioxidee. Much of this knowledge has come from the same past climate changes that you seem to think nobody but you knows about. LOL
Your friends must be in awe of your amazing insights into the nature of reality. You obviously know better than thousands of scientists.
"God" needs to stick with comforting the sick, the elderly, the dieing, not politics, science -- As for the Atheists that don't believe in God? Are you evaluating God, or man's religions to arrive at the decision there is no God? All of the religions are wrong--God is unknown to them.
george - could not agree more - perhaps "God" (Read:Obama) could step down and do non-profits. He's GREAT at spending. He could help.
must be Al Gore again on a book tour.
all those wonderful fumes coming one private jet. lolll
It seems like a very normal summer here in the Great State of South Carolina.
The great State of South Carolina, ranking in the bottom fifth for poverty as well as citizens lacking health insurance.
Whatever we do, let's totally ignor the warmings from the overwhelming majority of experts. And yes, they really are experts but that counts for naught when you're dealing with the Right cause then know more than everybody and anybody.
Seems to me people in South Carolina are a whole lot smarter than the pointy head left wing loons who want to control every aspect of our lives.
Jim in Pa
I did not mean it, to discredit God. I am a believer in God. Read my bible daily. Just feel, that the Church does not practice, all that it preaches. I used to attend church. Dropped away from that. And just read my bible.
God, is all powerful, not the church.
Amen Ready, the Bible has lived for thousands of years because it is truth. So many here have opinions!! Give me the truth for when I die!!
Truth? That two of each of the 8.7 million animals lived on the same boat for 40 years? Truth that, like dozens of "prophets" before him, your savior was born to a virgin, died, went to the sky and came back? etc, etc. stories from 2,000 yr old book of fables that has been proven wrong numerous times. Faith does equal fact.
Steveo, I have actually read the Bible many times over and love it. It proclaims God and His Son. Please do not throw out false information!!
I've read "Green Eggs and Ham" many times and had loved it too. That doesn't change the fact that it is fiction. What's your point?
Jim in PA, how did Noah get the dinosaurs on the ark? Did he lift their tails to make sure he had a male and female of each?
maybe dinosaurs werent on Earth at the time of Noah !!
Did anyone mention ocean temperatures and currents? I'm not sure of the exact percentages, but my guess is that almost everything about precipitation is related in some way to oceans and mountains. And seeing as how the oceans take up two thirds of the planet's surface, I am pretty sure that the changes in ocean surface temperatures and currents which are being documented daily should explain the dramatic variations in temperature and precipitation we have seen all over the world in the last few years. That ain't weather gang. That's climate change.
how old is the earth?
how long has temperature been recorded?
that pretty much sums it up.
No, it pretty much proves that you miss the point completely.
... and how many deserts used to be covered with ice and how many places that used to be covered with water or land are now solid ice.
The ignorant lemmings have no use or concern for these realities, it doesn't jive with their agenda ...
It sums it up for a simple mind.
Panther, if you understood the science you would know that those obervations do not support you conclusion.
Again dummy, I am not stating anything that I have concluded, only what is known to be the historical facts regarding this planet as have been determined by the scientific community.
Don't you have some dolls you could be playing with instead of bugging people with your mindless postulations and emotional blathering?
Panther, I think if you re-read the exchange, I am not the one who would be coming across as emotional. The problem with your logic was that climate scientists know quite well that the climate has changed many times, naturally. But they also know that says nothing about whether we can affect it ALSO, whioch is what the current debate is about. In fact, it is by studying those same past climate changes you refer to, that they have learned so much about the way the climate system works, and the critical role that CO2 plays in it.