These Cities Just Had Their Hottest Summers Ever

Just like last year, and the year before that, 2024 has been another record year for climate. The average temperature in the contiguous United States from June to August was 73.8°F, 2.5°F warmer than normal and the fourth warmest summer on record. Plagued by brutal heat domes and other intense weather events, 113 counties set records for average daily summer temperature in 2024, representing 11.9% of the U.S. population.

To determine the cities that just had their hottest temperatures on record, Climate Crisis 24/7 reviewed county-level data on average monthly temperatures from the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The county seats of all counties in the contiguous U.S. were ranked based on the difference in average daily temperature in summer 2024 (June through August) from historical summer averages from 1901 to 2000. Only counties where summer  2024 ranks as the hottest summer on record – going back to 1895 – were included.