Brace yourselves for another hot summer, forecasters say
WASHINGTON -- U.S. forecasters are predicting another warmer than normal summer for most of the country along with wetter weather in a swath of states stretching from Texas to Montana.
The hot weather forecast came amid what's already shaping up to be another unusually hot year. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said last month was the second warmest April on record globally — just a fraction of a degree behind the hottest in 2016. And so far 2017 is the second warmest year-to-date on record.
The National Weather Service's summer outlook issued Thursday predicts greater chances for hot weather in states that fall along the East Coast, Texas, Alaska and pretty much everywhere else.
The exceptions are Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and parts of Missouri and Colorado.
But forecaster Stephen Baxter says it may not be as hot as recent summers because rain-soaked soil from a wet spring may keep the heat down.
Baxter forecasts a wetter than normal summer for Alaska and parts of the already soggy Great Plains.
