Climate Experts Predict Summer Heat Spike as Global Warming Edges Toward 2C

June 17, 2026 Share This Article Republish. A person wears a hat for shade during a heat wave on March 20 in Redondo Beach, Calif. The March heat wave that blistered the Western U.S. foreshadows more extreme heat this summer, former NOAA climate scientists said in a briefing this week. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Related Montana Officials Warn of Elevated Wildfire Risk From Increasing Drought, Heat and Wind An Unusually Early Heat Wave Breaks Temperature Records Across Western Europe As El Niño Approaches, Scientists Predict Fierce Heatwaves, Wildfires and Floods Share This Article Republish Most Popular Trump’s EPA Unlawfully Cancelled Environmental Justice Grants, Judge Rules Hoover Dam Approaches a Hydropower Cliff An Old Well Gushed Waste, Not Oil, in a Small West Texas Town Former federal climate experts warn that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations hit a record high in May and that the monthly average global temperature this summer could rise as much as 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit (1.9 degrees Celsius) above the pre-industrial benchmark used to measure the heating from greenhouse gases.

Research shows human-caused warming will contribute significantly to deadly heat waves, intensified storms and wildfires, atmospheric scientist Zack Labe said as he opened a Tuesday briefing by a team of experts with Climate Central, a nonprofit research and communications organization based in Washington, D.C.

Labe and several other members of the Climate Central team are former National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists. They decided to provide public monthly climate updates after NOAA, citing Trump administration budget cuts, canceled its briefings last year. Climate Central’s monthly briefings are part of a larger effort to ensure useful climate information remains available to the public as the current administration tries to erase the topic from government records.