2023 Was Record-Hottest Summer For Over 20 Southern Cities, From Arizona To Florida

 Jonathan Erdman

Published: September 1, 2023

2​023 was the hottest summer on record for over 20 cities from Arizona to Florida.

With August and "meteorological summer" – June through August – wrapped up, the magnitude and longevity of heat in the nation's southern tier rewrote the history books.

"​This summer was the hottest on record for virtually every site along and just inland of the Gulf Coast, from Brownsville, Texas, to Key West, Florida," said weather historian Christopher Burt in an email to weather.com.

B​urt said only summer 2011 previously came close to doing that.

(​CURRENT MAPS: Temperatures | Heat Indices | Dew Points)

Cities that tied or set their record hottest summer (June-August) in 2023. Only those cities with longer periods of record are plotted.

Louisiana languished: Perhaps no state was more anomalously hot throughout the summer than Louisiana.

B​aton Rouge crushed its previous record-hot summer from 2011 by almost 3 degrees, an absolute pummeling in the realm of temperatures averaged over a three-month period. They chalked up an astonishing 30 days with triple-digit highs, 29 more days than an average summer, according to the National Weather Service. The capital city also had its two hottest months dating to 1892 in July and August.

New Orleans also had their hottest summer by a landslide, and soared to an all-time high of 105 degrees on Aug. 27.

The ferocity and persistence of hot, dry weather pushed the Pelican State into a flash drought that reached exceptional levels by the end of August. It also led to a rash of wildfires, one of which grew to become the largest in state history.

T​exas Interstate 10 clean sweep: While much of the Lone Star State was hot, it was a record-hot summer for virtually every single major reporting station near or south of Interstate 10, from Beaumont to Brownsville to El Paso.

H​ouston edged the notoriously blazing, drought-stricken 2011 for its hottest summer. It was the second straight hottest summer on record in both College Station and San Antonio. Del Rio obliterated its previous record and has now had its three hottest summers all since 2020.

O​ther eye-popping notables: Phoenix had the hottest single month of any U.S. city on record in July, which propelled them above 2020.

S​everal Florida cities also rewrote their summer heat record books in 2023, including Key West, Miami, Pensacola and Sarasota. While Tampa fell just short of their record summer, they've now had their four hottest summers all within the past four years.

M​obile, Alabama's, hottest summer record had stood since Chester Arthur was president (1883), but that also fell by the wayside in 2023.

T​he persistence of "heat domes" of high pressure and record-warm Gulf of Mexico water teamed up to produce a persistently searing summer.

But parts of the nation weren't that hot. While the extreme, persistent heat in the South grabbed the most attention, a rather sizable swath of the nation's East, Rockies and Great Basin had either an average or even cooler than average summer.

Temperature departures from average from June 1 through August 30, 2023, in degrees Celsius.

T​hat was because domes of high pressure aloft responsible for blistering heat were not only parked over parts of the South, but also extended at times across much of Canada, from British Columbia to the Labrador Sea.

T​hat forced frequent low-pressure "troughs" to swirl over the East and Midwest, ushering in occasional bouts of cooler air.

D​espite this, other massive heat waves around the world both on land and in the oceans set a new hottest month record for the planet in July dating to the mid-19th century. August and the June-August Northern Hemisphere summer may also be the planet's hottest on record once data is finalized in September.

M​ORE ON WEATHER.COM

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Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. His lifelong love of meteorology began with a close encounter from a tornado as a child in Wisconsin. He studied physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, then completed his Master's degree working with dual-polarization radar and lightning data at Colorado State University. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on X/Twitter, Facebook and Threads. 

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.