#Sizzling summer temperatures expected to continue through August

People enjoy the sunny weather in Domino Park in Brooklyn.
Brian Zak/NY Post

Sweltering, hotter-than-normal temperatures are forecast through the end of August in the US as part of a long-term trend that some researchers say is due to climate change.

The blistering heat is likely to hit Mid-Atlantic states — with an increase of up to 2.5 degrees on average in New York City —  along with New England and much of the West, putting 2020 on track to become one of the hottest years ever on record, according to climate researchers and meteorologists.

“There is a long-term trend in temperatures driven by human activity that is going to lead to more and more records being broken,” Gavin Schmidt, the director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies at NASA, which studies global change, told The New York Times.

“Not every month, not every year — but this will keep happening as long as we continue to emit carbon dioxide.”

After a May that tied for the hottest ever recorded globally, the oppressive weather means that drought conditions — which impact about one-fourth of the country — will continue through the summer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center.

Only a small part of the Midwest, centered around Missouri, has an equal chance of lower-than-normal temperatures, NOAA scientists said.

And don’t expect much respite at night. The mercury is unlikely to drop as much as it has in past decades because greenhouse gases have become stuck in the lowest part of the atmosphere, trapping heat, according to the Times.

People living in cities — which are packed with heat-absorbing and wind-blocking buildings — are expected to suffer more than rural-living folks, according to the report.

In New York City, June is expected to be 1 degree hotter than the month’s long-term average of 70 degrees — and it will get worse as the months roll on, said Accuweather senior meteorologist Dave Dombek. July is forecast to be 2 degrees hotter than its average of 76  degrees while August is predicted to be 2.5 degrees hotter than its average of 75 degrees.

 “A normal summer in New York is going to feel sticky and uncomfortable — and it’s probably going to be even more so his year,” Dombek said. “You have so many buildings, and so much concrete and asphalt that hold heat. It’s like a pizza stone that stays hot even after you take it out of the oven.”

People drink outside a bar during the reopening phase following the coronavirus outbreak.

REUTERS/Caitlin Ochs

People watch as demonstrators march along Central Park during events to mark the celebration of Juneteenth.

REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

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The rising summer temperatures are in line with a larger global warming trend showing the five hottest Julys have occurred in the last five years, NOAA scientists said.  Each decade since the 1960s has been warmer than the one before, with the five hottest years happening between 2015 and 2020.

May 2020 was tied with May 2016 for the hottest record, with temperatures 1.71 degrees above average.