Currently — August 2, 2023: Phoenix records the hottest month in US history

The weather, currently.

During July, Phoenix, Arizona had an average temperature of 102.7°F (39.3°C) — the hottest ever for any US city of any size, and one of the hottest months ever in world history for a populated place.

That record temperature was not just the average daily high temperature for the month, which was 114.7°F (45.9°C). It also includes the average daily low temperature for the month, which was 90.8°F (32.7°C). That’s really really hot. For an entire month.

I genuinely can’t imagine living through that. Hardly anywhere on Earth ever gets this hot, even rarely — in fact, only Death Valley, parts of Algeria in the Saharan Desert, Pakistan, and the shores of the Red Sea and Persian Gulf ever have.

Here’s what it felt like to survive last month in Phoenix:

It was so hot in Phoenix that the city’s hospital burn unit was full of patients who had fallen on the pavement and suffered 3rd degree burns. It’s still uncertain how many people died due to the heatwave there, but it’s expected to be substantial. Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather in the US, killing as many as 10,000 people per year. As with all forms of weather and climate extremes, it’s the marginalized members of society who are harmed the most — and heat waves are at the core of climate injustice.

And of course, since July was the hottest month globally in human history, it wasn’t just Phoenix that was hot. More than 20 US cities from northern Alaska to south Florida also recorded the hottest month in their history.

—Eric Holthaus

What you can do, currently.

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