Third-hottest summer on record for US in 2012
Severely damaged corn stalks due to a widespread drought are seen at sunset on a farm near Oakland City, Indiana, Aug. 15, 2012. Record heat throughout the US farm belt states have curtailed crop production and likely will send corn and soybean prices to record highs, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
If you thought it was super hot this summer, you were right.
The contiguous US experienced its third-hottest summer on record in 2012, according to data released Monday by the NOAA's National Climatic Data Center.
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The average temperature for the months of June, July and August was 74.4 degrees — 2.3 degrees higher than the 20th century average.
This year's summer average is one-tenth of a degree shy of last summer's second-warmest 74.5 degrees, and two-tenths of a degree short of the warmest summer on record back in the Dust Bowl of 1936, The Weather Channel reported.
More from GlobalPost: What dying corn in Iowa means for the presidential election
Colorado and Wyoming recorded their warmest summers on record.
Nationwide, this summer was one of the top 10 warmest on record in 23 states in total, USA Today reported.
The sweltering heat intensified already-dire drought conditions across much of the US this summer. As of Aug. 28, nearly 63 percent of the lower 48 states were experiencing moderate-to-exceptional drought conditions, according to The Huffington Post.
Global temperature data for the summer of 2012 will be released next week.