Jonathan Thompson

Editor in Chief

It’s official: This summer was hotter than a June bride in a featherbed, hotter than a fox in a forest fire, even hotter than a habanero topped Hatch green chile cheeseburger. Anyone who stepped out of their air-conditioned homes and offices anywhere from Boise to Phoenix, anytime from June to mid-September, probably already guessed that. But now the numbers have been crunched by the NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center.

Some of the findings include: Summer 2007 was the sixth warmest on record since 1895; this was the warmest summer ever for Utah and Nevada, and was in the top 10 for 11 other states; and the entire West was warmer than average, aside from Washington and Oregon, which fell in the “normal” range.

That meant a lot more air conditioners were running, meaning that the nation’s residential energy demand was 8 percent higher than under “normal” climate conditions (meaning more power plants burned more coal and spewed out more carbon dioxide creating warmer temperatures … ) Meanwhile, drought persisted across most of the West (in spite of above normal summer precipitation in California and Arizona).

In related news: Oceans are expected to rise by about one meter, in the next 50 to 150 years. If you’re curious how that might affect your beachfront home, check out this cool page from the University of Arizona.