You might have noticed that the month of July was hotter than normal. You might have noticed that, no matter where you were in the continental United States that you pants were a little stickier, your skin a little burnier, and the hot air actually made it difficult to breathe upon exiting your home. Yeah, that would be the heavily publicized heat wave that swept the country during a three-week span in the month of July. As it turns out, it wasn't just hot, it was record-breaking hot, and it was record-breaking hot everywhere.

     According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, 9,000 record highs were broken or tied across the country in the month of July. Mostly centered around the Southern Plains, the Midwest, and the Northeast. The NOAA data shows 2,755 maximum high temperatures, and 6,171 maximum low temperatures (nighttime highs). Some cities reached record highs 19 out of 31 days in the month. In fact, there were so many heat records broken that NOAA reported, "“just by plotting the location of each and every daily heat record that was broken, a nearly complete image of the contiguous United States is visible.” Take a look:

     Now, why would I belabor this point? Everyone knows it was freaking' hot as hell. Right? Actually, no, not really. Rush Limbaugh, evidently, did not think it was that hot. In fact, as I wrote last week, he went on a tirade about the "mainstream drive-by media" who are spreading "a bunch of lies" which, in Limbaugh's perfectly balanced opinion, are to "advance a political agenda of liberalism". In fact, according to Rush, "almost no temperature records were broken." As my wife commented, "Now he's literally denying the weather." How true. Limbaugh seems to be so intractably opposed to any possibility that global warming is a reality that he's even decided that the weather (easily observable by, say, stepping outside) is even a victim of liberal spin. What's worse is that he doesn't stop there.

     The heat index (that number that meteorologists helpfully provide to let people know that even though the number on the screen looks hot, it's actually way hotter) is evidently a liberal conspiracy to perpetuate the myth about global warming. In fact, he even accuses Americans' reliance on air conditioners as the culprit in why so many people seem to believe in the global warming lie. That's right, we're so acclimated to climate control that we've just "forgotten" what the real heat outside feels like...easy to say for a guy that's probably never had to be without a personal assistant, let alone air conditioning.

     According to the NOAA, 5 major U.S. cities had their hottest months in history: Austin, TX; Detroit; Oklahoma City, OK; Philadelphia; and Washington, D.C. No matter what the conservative news cycle and climate change deniers might attempt to eschew, there is no denying the escalating prevalence of erratic weather patterns and record-setting temperatures and numbers of natural disasters. Unfortunately, it seems that our lawmakers in Washington are increasingly influenced by the ideological fringe, rather than scientific evidence and "plain as day" weather.