July Was Hottest Month on Record
- 12 years ago
July Was Hottest Month on Record - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
July 2012 has gone down as the hottest month ever recorded in the United States’ lower 48 states. The average temperature was 77 point 6 degrees, which beat the previous record set in 1936 by point 2 degrees, according to a report from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Virginia’s July temperatures were four degrees above the normal average, putting an exclamation point on what has been the hottest 12 months that the US has seen record keeping began in 1895.
The high temperatures have contributed to a massive drought that now affects about 63 percent of the continental US. Farmers are being forced to sell or slaughter their livestock as prices for feed have risen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been forced to designate over one half of US counties as disaster zones. Experts say that these record temperatures might be a sign of climate change. "These events are kind of what we'd expect with climate change, we'd expect expanding drought, we'd expect warm, record breaking temperatures," a NOAA climate scientist, told NBC News.
July 2012 has gone down as the hottest month ever recorded in the United States’ lower 48 states. The average temperature was 77 point 6 degrees, which beat the previous record set in 1936 by point 2 degrees, according to a report from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. Virginia’s July temperatures were four degrees above the normal average, putting an exclamation point on what has been the hottest 12 months that the US has seen record keeping began in 1895.
The high temperatures have contributed to a massive drought that now affects about 63 percent of the continental US. Farmers are being forced to sell or slaughter their livestock as prices for feed have risen. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has been forced to designate over one half of US counties as disaster zones. Experts say that these record temperatures might be a sign of climate change. "These events are kind of what we'd expect with climate change, we'd expect expanding drought, we'd expect warm, record breaking temperatures," a NOAA climate scientist, told NBC News.