In the midst of the dog days of summer, the U.S. is still having its third-hottest year on record through July. The month also saw two states — New Mexico and Florida — clinch their hottest July, while Alaska continued to stay on track for its warmest year in the books.
For the contiguous U.S., the year-to-date temperature was 54.3°F (12.4°C), or 3.0°F (1.7°C) above the 20th century average, according to data released Monday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Every state was warmer than average for the same period.
“The January-July period was the third warmest by a fairly wide margin,” NOAA climatologist Jake Crouch said in an email.
The U.S. has been just one hotspot on the planet, which is having its warmest year on record by a good margin. The globally hot year is largely the result of the excess heat trapped by ever increasing amounts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
![How temperatuers across the contiguous U.S. have compared to the 20th century average through July.](http://ww2.kqed.org/science/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2016/08/NOAA_US_map.jpg)
Temperatures this year have edged close to 1.5°C above the average for the late 19th century, before warming had much of an impact. Nations have agreed to limit warming this century to below 2°C, with some discussion of aiming for the tougher 1.5°C threshold.