It’s Not Just You.America Has Gotten Much Hotter.

By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Summer has long been known for its spirit of adventure and reprieve, found in fire hydrants and backyard sprinklers, campsites and lemonade stands. It was the time of year when the outdoors could be most fearlessly embraced.

Now summer has a new set of fixtures: face masks, air purifiers and public health alerts. Children stay home from camp on smoke days, a gleeless version of winter’s snow days. People who work outside have turned to salt packets and cooling vests. The notion of enduring the summer rather than embracing it has spread far beyond the Sun Belt.

As Americans mourn this change, we hope it will motivate them to take action. The country needs to act both to better live with the new reality of summer and to prevent it from worsening. To do so requires escaping the binary of doom and apathy that too often defines climate conversations.

Heat is the most widespread change. Summer 2026 is on track to be both the hottest and most humid in the contiguous United States since records began in 1895. Even as the end of summer approaches, much of the country is experiencing waves of heat and humidity. Over the past two weeks, temperatures have climbed 15 to 20 degrees above historical averages in parts of California, the Midwest and the South, leading to school closures and early dismissals.

In many parts of the country, extreme heat affects much more of the year than it once did. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Fulton County, Ga., which includes Atlanta, spent about 47 days a year with a heat index (a measure that combines temperature and humidity to estimate how hot it feels) exceeding 90 degrees. In recent years, Fulton County’s residents have typically endured 79 such days, an increase of a month.

Even historically temperate regions have become........

© The New York Times