The summer of 2026 may be remembered as the moment El Pasoans really felt the rising costs of climate change.
The average temperature in El Paso between June 1 and Aug. 31 will be 86.6 degrees, the fifth warmest on record for that period, according to the National Weather Service data and forecast.
Like the planet as a whole, El Paso’s temperatures have been rising for decades as the climate has warmed. A phenomenon known as the urban heat island effect also plays a role. But since 2009, summer temperatures that previously had been freakish in El Paso have become the norm. (For record-keeping purposes, meteorologists and climatologists use June through August to represent summer trends in the northern hemisphere.)
Before 2009, El Paso had one summer (1994) where the average temperature exceeded 86 degrees. Since 2009, it’s happened eight times, including three of the last four years. Last summer was the exception – the average temperature was “only” 85.9 degrees…