How horrid? July on pace to be hottest month on record

By Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

Sponsored LinksWith five days to go in July, preliminary data show that the heat could top records set decades ago: "The warmest July for the contiguous U.S. was in 1936, when the nationally averaged temperature was 77.43 degrees, 3.14 degrees above the 20th-century average," said climate scientist Jake Crouch of the National Climatic Data Center.

Preliminary data from the center show the national temperature for the first three weeks of July was 3.63 degrees above the 1971-2000 average. If the heat continues, and after the data are more closely analyzed and more final numbers come in, that would top July 1936.

Five cities — St. Louis, Indianapolis Chicago, Detroit and Denver — are all on pace to shatter their all-time monthly heat records.

"It's hotter here than it is in Arizona," Mary Dominis complained earlier this month while visiting Chicago from Tempe.

St. Louis is seeing some unbelievable heat this summer: On Wednesday, the city hit 108 degrees, Weather Underground meteorologist Jeff Masters said. "This marked the 11th day this summer in St. Louis with temperatures of at least 105 degrees," he said, "beating the old record of 10 such days in 1934."

There was some relief in St. Louis on Thursday: the temperature didn't break 100.

Twenty-four people have died from the heat in St. Louis so far this summer.

Through Monday, there have been 3,740 record daily high temperatures set across the nation this month, compared with only 211 record lows, Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton said.

It's been unusually hot even in torrid Death Valley, Calif. On July 12 the low temperature at Death Valley dropped to just 107 degrees after hitting a high of 128 degrees the previous day, Masters said. Not only did the morning low temperature tie a record for the world's warmest low temperature ever recorded, the average temperature of 117.5 degrees was the world's warmest 24-hour temperature on record.

The Climate Prediction Center is forecasting more "excessive heat" in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Arkansas over the weekend and into early next week.

How horrid? July on pace to be hottest month on record