Okla., Texas set heat records in July

WASHINGTON (AP) — Sweltering may have reached a new record last month, as Oklahoma racked up the country's highest monthly average temperature ever.

That's the highest average temperature, for any month, for any state, associate Oklahoma state climatologist Gary McManus said.

According to automated weather recording instruments, the state's average for July was 89.1 degrees. That tops an average of 88.1 set in July 1954, McManus said.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration today reported that last month was the fourth hottest July on record for the U.S. and that Texas and Oklahoma had their warmest months on record.

"We've been beating temperature records left and right, from the 1930s Dust Bowl drought and the 1950s drought," said McManus, who admitted that's not the kind of record you put on a Chamber of Commerce promotion.

And it's not like Oklahoma is alone in this.

Nationwide, in the past 30 days 3,709 high temperature records have been set or tied.