Extreme heat in the U.S. Southwest carried August 2020 into the record books as the country’s third-warmest August in the 126-year record. Despite heavy rain from landfalling tropical cyclones, national average precipitation was in the driest third of the record.
The September 2020 temperature and precipitation outlook favors a warmer- and drier-than-average September across the western United States, and a wetter-than-average month across the south-central Plains and much of the East.
Hundreds of wildfires burned through over one million acres of land in California in less than two weeks in August. The resulting smoke has not only worsened air quality across the state but spread across the country.
Wildfires across Colorado during summer 2020 has led to the shutdown of the major thoroughfare across the state and billowed smoke for hundreds of miles.
The August 2020 outlook favors hotter-than-average temperatures along both coasts, while tropical moisture is likely to lead to a wetter-than-average August along the East Coast.
July temperatures are favored to be in the warmest third of the recent climate record for much of the U.S. In the drought-stricken Southwest, the odds of well below average precipitation are higher than the odds of an average or wetter-than-average July.
While the precipitation outlook for June is varied, the temperature outlook is one-sided, with most of the country having a higher chance for a warm June than a cool one.
Much of the southeastern United States went from little drought to widespread severe drought in a matter of a few weeks thanks to little rain and hot and sunny days.
