Chart assignment
Charts to read and discuss
Read each chart, then answer its questions. Every chart shows its source and date; open it for a table of the numbers and the data to download.
Chart 1 of 1 · Climate
Are US summers getting hotter?
The interactive chart needs JavaScript. The numbers are on the chart's page.
Summer 2026 (June to August) averaged 74.4°F across the contiguous US. The hottest summer since records began in 1895 was 2026, at 74.4°F; 1936, the Dust Bowl summer, averaged 74.0°F. Through 2026, the dashed trend line, the straight line that best fits every summer, rose about 0.14°F a decade over the whole record, and summers had warmed about 0.46°F a decade since 1970.
Questions to discuss
- In one sentence of your own, what does this chart show?
- Find the biggest change or difference in the chart. What might explain it?
- Who collected these numbers, and how recent are they? What else would you want to know before drawing a conclusion?
Source: NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Climate at a Glance (Public domain (U.S. government work)) · Data as of Aug 31, 2026
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