2023 Is Record Hottest Summer For Over A Dozen Southern Cities, From Texas To Florida

2​023 will be the hottest summer on record for at least a dozen cities, and possibly more, from Texas and the Southwest to Florida.

W​hile August and "meteorological summer" - June through August - aren't yet wrapped up, the magnitude and longevity of heat in the nation's southern tier have already clinched a record hot summer in areas near the Gulf Coast and parts of the Desert Southwest.

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

T​hese cities are a lock for their hottest summer. Based on current statistics and the forecast through the end of the month, the cities shown in red below will likely smash their record hottest summers.

A​mong those cities include Pensacola, Sarasota and Key West, Florida; Mobile, Alabama; Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Del Rio, El Paso, San Antonio and Victoria, Texas; and Roswell, New Mexico.

S​an Antonio will set its hottest summer record for the second year in a row.

B​aton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, will also easily set their hottest summers. Louisiana's capital city will crush its previous record by more than 2 degrees, an absolute pummeling in the realm of temperatures averaged over a three-month period.

O​ther cities are close. Albuquerque, Austin, Houston, Miami, Phoenix and Tampa are among the other cities that may also set their hottest summer records, but are too close to call this soon, shown as yellow dots in the map above.

P​hoenix had the hottest single month of any U.S. city on record in July, and, as of the time this article was published, was tied with 2020 for their hottest summer.

M​any of the other cities were also either tied or just a tenth or two degrees above or below their current records. Tampa will chalk up their four hottest summers all in the past four years, regardless of whether they eclipse or tie last year's hottest summer.

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

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.

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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. 

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