More than 70 million Americans sweated through the muggiest first two months of summer on record as climate change has noticeably dialed up the Eastern United States' humidity in recent decades, an Associated Press data analysis shows.

And that meant uncomfortably warm and potentially dangerous nights in many cities the last several weeks, the National Weather Service said.

Parts of 27 states and Washington, D.C., had a record amount of days that meteorologists call uncomfortable — with average daily dew points of 65 degrees Fahrenheit or higher — in June and July, according to data derived from the Copernicus Climate Service.

And that's just the daily average. In much of the East, the mugginess kept rising to near tropical levels for a few humid hours. Philadelphia had 29 days, Washington had 27 days and Baltimore had 24 days where the highest dew point simmered to at least 75 degrees, which even the the weather service office in Tampa calls oppressive, according to weather service data.

Dew point is a measure of moisture in the air expressed in degrees that many meteorologists call the most accurate way to describe humidity. The........

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