State-by-State Lists Show Recent Months Dominating Hottest and Coldest Rankings

Stacker used NOAA’s NCEI temperature archive to rank the warmest and coolest months by state, a set of findings that underscores multi-decade warming trends.

Overview

Stacker published state-by-state rankings of the hottest and coldest months using National Centers for Environmental Information data that were carried by local outlets on July 14–15, 2026.
The rankings use statewide average monthly temperature to order months and report each month’s statewide average, monthly high and low, and total precipitation.
Several recent months top the lists, including California’s hottest July (July 2024) and hottest June (June 2021) and Arizona’s hottest July (July 2023).
The coverage places those ranked months in climate context by citing NOAA data that show steady warming since 1880 of about 0.14°F per decade and record heat in recent years.
The compilations are descriptive not attribution studies, they may mask local variation within states, and multiple local news sites republished the same Stacker/NCEI material for regional audiences.