If this summer’s heat seems worse than usual, that’s because it is.
The average temperature in June — combining daytime highs and overnight lows — was the second hottest on record for Salt Lake City and Lehi. Further south, in Cedar City and Escalante, it was the hottest on record.
Based on daytime temperatures alone, Kanab just experienced its hottest June according to records that date back to 1903. Highs in St. George, Salt Lake City, Cedar City, Lehi and Tooele all ranked among the cities’ top five warmest on record.
Even more alarming is just how much hotter those temperatures were than the cities’ 30-year normals — the historical average of high temps from 1991-2020.
St. George’s average high in June was 102.7 degrees. That’s 6.3 degrees hotter than its historical average of 96.4. Salt Lake City’s average was 90.5, up 6.4 degrees from its average of 84.1. In Tooele, highs were a whopping 7.4 degrees hotter than normal, jumping from 82 to 89.4 degrees.
Christie Pondell, who teaches environmental science at Utah Tech University and co-directs the school’s new Center for Climate Resilience and Sustainability, said these are tangible signs of climate change’s impact on our lives.
“Utah is kind of the epicenter for a lot of these changes. We are one of the fastest changing places in terms of climate becoming hotter and drier, faster,” Pondell said.
“We kept saying, ‘Oh, it's gonna happen by 2100.’ But it's here. It's happening now. We're experiencing it.”
Our climate is going through an uncertain, unstable phase as it transitions toward what it will become by the next century, she said, and that means “we're going to start to expect things to just be weird.” So it should not be surprising to see cool, wet periods — like Utah’s superabundant snowpack and St. George’s record-breaking precipitation in 2023 — quickly followed by hot, dry periods as weather patterns swing between extremes.
When it comes to early summer heat, Utah has been far from alone. June 2024 marked the 13th straight month global temperatures set new heat records — part of a warming climate shift driven by greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel use.
July’s temperatures have continued the trend with a widespread pattern of extreme heat that has set records from California to Maryland. Salt Lake City’s high temperature of 106 degrees on July 11 broke its previous record for that day, one day after the city’s high of 104 degrees tied the record for July 10.
“This is kind of the new normal at this point — consistently breaking these records,” said Casey Olson, a climate data analyst with the Utah Climate Center.
“As a future father, I'm pretty nervous about the environment that my kids will be growing up in. So there's a lot of different facets of this that are alarming to me.”
When an abnormally strong high-pressure system brings lasting, oppressive heat this early in the summer, that only heightens the danger, Olson said, because it’s happening closer to the solstice. That means Utah is getting more direct solar radiation now than it would during a similarly hot day in August.
While the current heat wave is expected to move out within a few days, he said summer temps don’t usually peak in this region until later in July or August. So Utah’s summer of heat may be far from over.
“Both the one-month and three-month probabilistic outlooks favor hot and dry. I wish I had better news,” Olson said.
It’s another example of how the arc of history is bending toward a hotter future, with extreme heat becoming increasingly common in recent decades.
In Cedar City, for example, a 100-degree day used to be a rare event — it happened only five times from 1951-1960 and three times from 1961-1970. Between 2011-2020, however, Cedar City had 23 days when it hit 100 degrees.
Salt Lake City saw a similar increase. It had 47 100-degree days from 1951-1960 and 46 days from 1961-1970. By 2011-2020, that number doubled to 93 days. The city has already seen 69 such days since 2021, so it’s well on its way to exceeding the previous decade’s total.
These types of temperatures can quickly become deadly.
In the U.S., heat kills more people than any other weather-related event. The best way to protect yourself is to avoid going outdoors in the afternoon as much as possible, Olson said, as well as staying hydrated and wearing light clothes that allow for ventilation. Warming overnight lows can also disrupt our sleep and prevent our bodies from recovering from the heat of the day.
Extreme heat is especially dangerous for vulnerable populations, such as young children, outdoor workers and people experiencing homelessness. Another concern is older Utahns who may not be able to move to a cooler place if their air conditioning goes out, Pondell said.
As highs reached 114 degrees in St. George, the city called on residents to cut their electricity use to reduce strain on the power grid. July is already off to its second-hottest start on record in St. George, with an average high of 109.2.
For a community like St. George that’s home to a rapidly growing population — including a large share of retirees — Pondell said finding ways to keep people safe should be a priority.
“I hope that there is an opportunity in this to come together as a community and find solutions that are innovative and help us to adapt to this because it's really what we need to do,” Pondell said.
“We need to accept that this is going to be our new normal. And how do we adapt to that?”
