In a year marked by drought, relentless heat and mounting concerns about the return of El Niño conditions, new climate data offers a stark measure of how unusual 2026 has been. Across much of the United States, temperatures have climbed well above historical averages, with some cities from Wyoming to Arizona running more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than normal through August. A Newsweek map based on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) data through August shows that the largest temperature departures were concentrated across the Southwest, Rocky Mountains and Southern Plains, with Wyoming, Arizona and Texas emerging as some of the hardest-hit states.
NOAA has also reported that the contiguous United States experienced its warmest August and warmest meteorological summer on record, while drought expanded across large swaths of the country. The map visualizes how far temperatures in each state have deviated from the 1991-2020 average this year. Newsweek ranked each state using the reporting city that recorded the largest temperature departure from normal in NOAA's data.
Wyoming ranked first, represented by the city of Lander, where temperatures were running 5.4 degrees above average through August. Arizona followed closely, with Phoenix recording temperatures 5.2 degrees above normal, while Texas ranked third after Amarillo logged a 5.2-degree anomaly. The pattern was particularly pronounced across the interior West.
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Idaho all ranked among the 10 states with the largest departures from average temperatures, creating a belt of extreme warmth stretching from the Southwest into the Rocky Mountains. By comparison, departures were generally smaller across the Northeast. Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and New York were among the states closest to their long-term averages, though many still experienced warmer-than-normal conditions.
The unusually warm conditions have unfolded alongside the development of a "Super El Niño," which forecasters project could become one of the strongest such events in living memory. Experts say strong El Niño events can raise global temperatures and alter weather patterns around the world, influencing rainfall, drought, storm activity and more. "I think that the unusually warm temperatures across the United States is related in part due to El Niño, but also in part due to the very warm ocean temperatures in the Atlantic basin.
Warmer water temperatures can help to add more heat to the planet overall, and as a result, a lot of times when we have El Niño years, world records for temperatures either get challenged or broken," AccuWeather meteorologist Alex DaSilva told Newsweek. "This El Niño could absolutely impact temperatures as we head into the winter season. Many areas could see a very warm winter globally.
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