Sept. 19, 2014 -- According to the National Climatic Data Center, the Earth had its warmest June through August on record, Bloomberg News reports.
The combined land and ocean temperature for the globe was 1.28 degrees Fahrenheit (0.71 Celsius) above the 20th century average of 61.5 degrees and broke a previous record set in 1998, according to the center in Asheville, North Carolina.
While the 48 contiguous states had a near-average summer and the coolest since 2009, California, Oregon and Washington all had seasons that registered in their top five for heat and most of the other states west of the Rocky Mountains turned in warmer summers than average. The mean temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 71.7 degrees, 0.3 degree above the 20th century mean, according to the climatic data center.
Florida and five of the six New England states also had warmer-than-normal summers, though in Boston it was hard to tell. Vermont was near the middle.
READ MORE: Bloomberg