The United States sweltered through its hottest July ever recorded last month, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirmed Monday.
Warmer-than-normal temperatures affected the entire contiguous U.S., averaging 76.9 degrees for the month, which was 3.3 degrees above the 20th-century average, according to NOAA. The troubling milestone came amid a month chock-full of extreme weather events that hit nearly every corner of the country, including heat waves, drought, severe storms, flooding and wildfires.
NOAA’s report said July 2026 was not only the warmest July but also the warmest month in the agency’s 132 years of record-keeping.
For much of the country, it was a hot and dry month. At the end of July, around 40% of the U.S. and Puerto Rico was in the grips of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, which tracks conditions nationwide and releases weekly updates.
Despite widespread drought, several regions experienced heavy rainfall in July that caused damaging flash flooding. Intense rain fell across the Texas Hill Country from July 13 to 17, producing rainfall totals of more than 28 inches near the town of Knippa, in Uvalde County, according to NOAA. Later in the month, from July 28 to 30, slow-moving thunderstorms dumped nearly 12 inches of rain over eastern New York, causing major flash flooding.
July is typically one of the hottest months of the year, and last month was no exception. It was among the top five warmest Julys for 13 states, while Wyoming experienced its warmest July and warmest month on record, with temperatures a whopping 5.1 degrees above average, according to NOAA.
Heat waves baked almost every part of the U.S. last month, including much of the West, Southwest, Rockies, northern Plains, Upper Midwest, mid-Atlantic, Gulf Coast and Southeast. NOAA said multiple sites across Idaho, Utah, Wyoming and Montana set new all-time high temperature records July 12, including 109 degrees in Salt Lake City; 109 degrees in Sheridan, Wyoming; 111 degrees in Billings, Montana; and 115 degrees in Miles City, Montana.
Several large wildfires also broke out in the Pacific Northwest last month, continuing into August. More than 140,000 acres were scorched in Oregon in July, prompting thousands of residents to evacuate from mostly small towns across the central and eastern parts of the state. Devastating wildfires also burned in Canada and Europe, and fast-moving blazes this month have destroyed hundreds of structures in Washington state and Oregon.
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NOAA’s latest figures add to other grim climate findings: A report released Monday by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found that Western Europe had its hottest June-July period on record. The continent has suffered through four brutal heat waves since May, with temperatures smashing several national records and plunging the region further into drought.
The Copernicus report also said that average sea surface temperatures reached their highest levels for July across extrapolar oceans — the bodies of water between latitudes 60 degrees south and 60 degrees north that are free of seasonal sea ice.
A separate “state of the climate” report released Monday in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society indicated that last year was similarly extreme. The report found that greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea level and ocean heat content all reached their highest levels on record in 2025.
