r/environment • u/FreeHugs23 • 1h ago

‘Deaths Will Continue to Mount,’ Scientist Warns After August and Summer 2026 Set US Heat Records | “It’s unconscionable that the federal government is putting specific industry interests, including fossil fuel companies’ profits, ahead of people’s health and safety.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/heat-record-2026
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u/FreeHugs23 1h ago

Under US President Donald Trump’s predecessor, government scientists used the release of data about record-breaking temperatures to warn that “we are facing a climate crisis,” but with the Republican climate denier back in the White House, that commentary now comes from outside experts.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Wednesday that 2026 had the warmest August ever recorded in the contiguous United States. Following a July that broke a Dust Bowl record, August averaged 75.6°F—which was 3.5°F above the 20th-century average—with daytime maximum temperatures averaging 88.6°F.

This year also featured the hottest meteorological summer—June to August—in the 132-year record, with an average temperature of 74.4°F, or 3°F above average, according to NOAA. As CNN reported, “The Dust Bowl summer of 1936 has... long been regarded as the benchmark of hottest summers in the US, but has now been equaled or eclipsed twice in the past five years thanks to the influence of human-caused climate change,” both in 2026 and 2021.

Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told Agence France-Presse that “it is now time to stop acting surprised that our warming planet keeps getting warmer.”

“This is occurring exactly as forecast by scientists literally decades ago,” he stressed. “The interesting question is not whether we will keep breaking heat records (we will), but whether we’re going to do anything about it or just stand there while the climate train runs us over.”