Early forecast says summer 2024 is set to be unusually hot across most of USA
Doyle RiceGet those flip-flops ready: It's shaping up to be an unusually hot summer for most of the U.S., weather forecasters said this week.
In a new summer forecast map released Thursday by NOAA, nearly the entire nation is enshrouded in red or orange, meaning warmer-than-average temperatures are expected for June, July and August.
NOAA said areas where the unusual heat is most likely include the Northeast and a large swath of the West.
The Weather Company, in a forecast released Thursday, also said warmer-than-average conditions are expected to encompass much of the country this summer.
Their forecaster, Todd Crawford, said there are signs in long-range models and climate trends that summer 2024 could end up being one of the hottest summers on record.
The two hottest summers in the U.S. were in 2021 and in 1936, according to NOAA.
Not all forecasters believe it will be a sweltering summer, though. AccuWeather, which releases its summer forecast on May 1, told USA TODAY on Friday that "we're looking at a milder-than-average summer across the U.S., with a couple of hot spots in the Northeast and the Southwest."
El Niño out, La Niña in
NOAA meteorologist Anthony Artusa told USA TODAY the waning El Niño and developing La Niña are factors in the agency's forecast for a warm summer. In addition to those, long-term trends of above-normal temperatures are factored into the forecast. This is especially true in the northeastern U.S., Artusa said.
Where will there be relief from the heat?
No part of the contiguous U.S. is forecast to have cooler-than-average temperatures for the summer months. The forecast map released by the NOAA shows that only the far northern Plains may escape the unusually warm summer.
What about rainfall?
Forecasts show that while a soggy summer could be in store for much of the Eastern Seaboard, a drier-than-average summer can be expected across most of the Plains and Rockies. Combined with the heat, that could exacerbate drought and wildfires across the West, Artusa said.