State-by-State NCEI Rankings Show Many of the Hottest Augusts Happened in the 2020s

Overview

• Stacker compiled lists of the hottest Augusts for each state using monthly average temperatures from the National Centers for Environmental Information and those lists were republished by local outlets this week.
• The rankings compare statewide monthly average temperature and report each month’s statewide high, low and total precipitation, which shapes which months top each state’s list.
• Many top-ranked Augusts are recent, with examples including Oregon’s hottest August listed as August 2022 and Colorado’s as August 2020, and several entries from 2020–2025 appearing across state lists.
• The pieces do not offer new causal analysis or policy steps; they use historical NCEI data to illustrate patterns rather than report new research or regional impacts.
• NOAA data give the larger context: average global temperatures have risen roughly 0.14°F per decade since 1880 and recent decades show a higher frequency of extreme monthly heat, which helps explain the clustering of recent record Augusts.