July 2026 — Hottest Month on Record for the Contiguous United States

The contiguous US averaged 76.9F in July 2026, topping a 132-year record book in which July 1936 and July 2012 had long stood as the hottest months. Much-above-average heat blanketed the interior West, Rockies, northern Plains, and Upper Midwest, along with parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast.^[1][2][3]

The record was built as much at night as by day: average lows of 64.2F ran 3.7F above normal, the warmest monthly minimum on record. A July 12 heat spike rewrote all-time station records across four Mountain West states, and the accumulated heat and dryness fed an already severe wildfire season.^[1][2][3]

Put the two halves of the day side by side and only one of them is a record — “Daytime maximum temperatures averaged 89.5°F, 2.9°F above average, ranking as the sixth-warmest month on record for average high temperatures, while overnight minimum temperatures averaged 64.2°F, 3.7°F above average, ranking as the warmest month on record for average low temperatures, surpassing July 2022 by 0.7°F.”^[1]

Highs ranked sixth. Lows ranked first, by 0.7°F. The headline number is the average of the two — “The average temperature for the CONUS in July was 76.9°F, 3.3°F above the 20th-century average. This was the warmest July—and warmest month—in the 132-year record, 0.1–0.2°F warmer than July 1936 and July 2012.” So “hottest month on record” rests on how little it cooled down overnight, not on how hot the afternoons got.^[1]

The record is for the contiguous states only — and outside them the month ran the other way. NOAA lists it among its own key takeaways — “Alaska had the coldest July average temperature since 2008.” With the figures — “Alaska’s average temperature was 51.8°F, 0.9°F below the 1925–2000 average, ranking in the coolest third of the 102-year record.”^[1]

Hawaiʻi sat in the middle for temperature, and split the same way the mainland did — “Hawai’i’s average temperature was 69.4°F, 0.6°F above the 1991–2020 average, ranking in the middle third of the 36-year record. While overnight minimum temperatures were above- to much-above average across the island chain, daytime temperatures were near or below average for the month.” Warm nights, ordinary days: the same signature, without the record.^[1]

Hawaiʻi's record that month was rain, not heat — “The year-to-date statewide precipitation total remained the wettest on record, with a January–July total of nearly five feet (59.82 inches), 25.43 inches above average (173.9% of normal).” And in Alaska — “Southern and southwestern portions of the state, including the Alaska Peninsula, received above-average to much-above-average precipitation, with Anchorage tying its highest July precipitation total on record.”^[1]

“Total precipitation averaged across the CONUS in July was 2.55 inches, 0.23 inch below the 20th-century average, ranking in the driest third of the 132-year record.” A national average hides the events that make the month — NOAA says so in the same breath — “Dry with regional flooding events: Despite below-average July precipitation for the CONUS as a whole, several regions experienced heavy rainfall, including major flash flooding events in the Texas Hill Country and eastern New York.”^[1]

The dryness shows up in the drought figure — “According to the August 4 U.S. Drought Monitor, about 48.5% of the CONUS was in drought, an increase of about 0.7 percentage points since the end of June.” “In Puerto Rico, more than two-thirds of the island was in drought, with more than one-third classified as severe drought or worse.”^[1]

And in what NOAA expected next — “Above-average August temperatures are favored across the central and southern tiers of the CONUS, with portions of coastal California and the southern Plains having a greater than 50 percent likelihood of above-average temperatures.” “Significant wildland fire potential for August is above normal across the Northwest, Great Basin and central Rockies, parts of the northern and southern Plains, the Lower Mississippi Valley, southern Florida and Puerto Rico.”^[1]

“Above-average temperatures covered the entire CONUS, with all states ranking in the warmest third of their July temperature records and none ranking near or below average.” With the detail — “All CONUS states were at least 1°F above their 20th-century average, with 13 states ranking among their five warmest Julys. Wyoming recorded its warmest July and warmest month on record, with temperatures 6.3°F above average and 0.9°F warmer than its previous July record set in 2007.” Wyoming did not merely have a warm July; it had its warmest month of any kind, by nearly a full degree over its own previous record.^[1]

And the page reporting the record was itself amended two days after it appeared — “Published August 10, 2026”, then “Updated Date August 12, 2026 Data updated for Wyoming temperature.” The state that set the biggest anomaly in the report is the one whose data was revised. A monthly climate figure is a first pass, not a final one.^[1]