The month of June was the hottest on record in North America, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
In a press release, the agency said that the exceptional heat waves that swept the western U.S. – as well as historic and unprecedented drought – helped push June 2021 to the top of the list after 127 years of record keeping.
The average June temperature across the contiguous U.S. was more than 4 degrees above average at 72.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
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That temperature also surpassed a June 2016 record by 0.9 of a degree.
Eight states including Arizona, California, Idaho, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Utah saw their hottest June on record and six others – Connecticut, Maine, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming – saw their second-hottest June.
NOAA noted that while the average June precipitation across the country precisely matched the month’s historical average at 2.93 inches, some states saw extremes in rainfall with either too much or too little.
The year-to-date (YTD) average temperature for the region also rose above the 20th-century average by 1.7 degrees at 49.3 degrees Fahrenheit, placing in the warmest third of the record.
Both California and New Hampshire saw their fifth-warmest YTD temperature and Maine saw its third.
Additionally, the precipitation total for that time period was 0.67 of an inch below average at 14.64 inches, ranking in the driest-third YTD on record.
Nine states across the country record a top 10 driest YTD on record, according to NOAA.