NOAA: This Summer Was Third Hottest On Record

Today in Washington, D.C. we got our first taste of fall. It was crisp and in the low 60s. And just as we slide into the last days of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration published its summer 2012 recap.

It's exactly what you were expecting: It was really hot. In fact, 2012 was the third hottest on record.

NOAA reports:

"According to the latest statistics from NOAA's National Climatic Data Center, the average temperature for the contiguous United States between June and August was over 74° Fahrenheit, which is more than 2° F above the twentieth-century average. Only the summers of 2011 and 1936 have had higher summer temperatures for the Lower 48."

This map tells the story. The more red it gets the more it deviated from average temperatures. It shows that parts of Colorado, Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska saw temperatures up to 8 degrees higher than the 20th Century average.

Summer, by the way, ends Sept. 21.

Copyright 2012 National Public Radio. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.