Summer Days Above Normal
Data, Graphs, and Maps
Grades6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12Earth and Space Sciences
This resource has been reviewed by SubjectToClimate's climate scientists and verified for scientific accuracy and up-to-date information. Learn about our review process →
Provided by Climate Central
What it is
- This interactive resource allows students to explore the number of summer days with above normal temperatures for many American cities between 1970 and 2024.
Teaching tips
Positives
- This resource is an excellent visual on increasing temperatures across America.
- Each chart is available in English or Spanish and can be downloaded.
Prerequisites
- Students should be comfortable reading line graphs.
- Background knowledge of normal temperatures would be helpful for student understanding.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Cross-curricular connections can be made in social studies classes discussing geography and climate, health classes thinking about staying healthy on hot days, or math classes working with real-life graphs.
- This resource would work well for making predictions about the future. Based on the increase in above normal days in the past 50 years, how many more above normal days can be expected in the next 10, 25, or 50 years?
- A jigsaw activity would work well for this resource. Assign each student 2-3 states to review. Then, have students aggregate the data they reviewed and share their findings with the class; this can be done by speaking, writing, or recording.
From the scientist review
The resource shows summer days above normal values in US cities from 1970-2024. Over 94% of 246 US cities are now experiencing temperature anomalies during summer periods. This resource is insightful and recommended for teaching.
Ready to use it?
Hosted on climatecentral.org
Want this to fit your class?
Add your location for local examples, questions, and action ideas.
