Can’t sleep on it: Nights are hottest on record

If you tossed and turned this summer because of the oppressive heat, here’s why:

This summer’s nighttime temperature, when averaged nationwide for June, July and August, was the hottest ever, recorded at 60.9 degrees, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.

In fact, every state had an aboveaverage summer minimum temperature.

Climate scientists define summer as the three months from June 1 through Aug. 31. U.S. climate records go back to 1895.

The inability of the atmosphere to cool off at night is a sign of global warming, driven by man-made climate change, NOAA said.

“In general, since records began in 1895, summer overnight low temperatures are warming at a rate nearly twice as fast as afternoon high temperatures for the U.S.,” NOAA said.

Overnight heat can have a profound effect on human health.

“When nighttime temperatures continue to be hot, when that heat just runs all the way through the night and onto the next day, we don’t get that recovery,” James Goldie of Australia’s University of New South Wales told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Burlington, Vermont, set its record for hottest night on July 2: The temperature never dropped below 80 degrees.

Cities including Las Vegas; Brownsville, Texas; Caribou, Maine; and Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, had their warmest summers on record, NOAA said.

The nationwide average of 73.53 degrees made 2018 the warmest summer since 2012 and tied for the fourthwarmest on record.

The hottest summer in U.S. history remains 1936, at the height of the Dust Bowl.