NOAA just dropped the data. The last twelve months in the U.S. are the hottest on record.
March did the heavy lifting.
The contiguous U.S. averaged about 50.9 Fahrenheit. That sounds normal until you compare it to the 20th-century norm for that same month. The gap? Nine and a third degrees. First time ever a single month has breached that specific nine-degree threshold, according to the agency. Daytime highs were even stranger, running over eleven degrees hotter than usual. So hot that the average daily max was basically warmer than April is usually warm.
Ten states—Arizona, California, Texas, a few others—had their hottest March. Ever. Alaska? Not really. They saw their fourth coldest March since records began in the twenties.
While the continent burned, the WMO looked at the bigger picture. Globally, every single year from 2015 through 2025 sits in the top eleven hottest years we have data for.
Is anyone surprised? Probably not. But the dryness makes it worse.
March was 1.8 inches short on precipitation. Add January and February to that droughty mix. The first quarter of 2026 is the driest on record now. Almost sixty percent of the country is in drought mode, up from fifty-five at the start of March.
And then April happened.
The third-hottest April ever. The Southeast took a particular beating. At one point, nearly the entire region was in drought. Just… gone.
