Climate change leads to warmer July in Erie, index tool shows

The temperatures in Erie are increasing, resulting in hotter summers on average — especially in the month of July — and contributing to climate change, according to the national organization Climate Central.

Climate Central , an organization that communicates climate change, science, effects and solutions to the public and decision-makers, utilized the Climate Shift Index (CSI) to measure the impact of climate change on daily temperatures across the country, including Erie.

The organization summarized July weather condition changes in its monthly report for Erie, which has an average July temperature nearly 5 degrees higher now than in July 1970. The summary included an historical ranking and an assessment on how climate change has influenced temperatures across the United States.

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The source uses the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's applied climate information system to track daily temperature information.

Climate change in the month of July for Erie

Climate Central states that since 1970, temperatures in Erie for the month of July have risen 4.7 degrees on average.

The average temperature for July 2026 was 73.8 degrees Fahrenheit, which was 1.1 degrees above normal.

"The normal value, which the period runs from 1991 to 2020, was 72.7 (degrees) which means there was a 1.1 degree departure from the normal value," Salix Iverson, meteorologist with the National Weather Service said. "To put it in perspective, the average temperature in July of 2025 was 74.4 degrees. So, slightly warmer than this year."

The three inches of precipitation that Erie received in July was 91% of the normal amount, according to Climate Central's data collected from 1991-2020.

The CSI illustrates how climate change alters the frequency of daily temperatures in any location each day.

The CSI ranges from minus-5 to plus-5, with positive levels indicating temperatures are becoming more likely due to climate change and negative scores indicating conditions are becoming less likely affected by climate change.

The data shows that Erie had:

• Three days when the maximum daily CSI value reached;

• Zero days of minus-5, minus-4 or minus-3 CSI;

• Two days of minus-2 CSI;

• Three days of minus-1;

• 19 days of zero CSI;

• Three days of 1 CSI;

• One day of 2 CSI;

• Three days of 3 CSI;

• Zero days of 4 or 5 CSI.

"The days that are not accounted for in the dataset are either CSI 1 or CSI 0," Abbie Veitch, media and communications manager for Climate Central said. "CSI 0 just means there was no detectable impact from climate change."

Erie part of national trend with climate change

Erie was factored into the overall above average temperatures in July, as 192 cities across the nation had an accumulated average increased difference of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

July 2026 was exceptionally warm in the U.S., which Climate Central reported as mirroring the long-term July warming trends.

"For July we had a very warm period where the Midwest to Eastern parts of the nation experienced extreme heat," Iverson said. "That was likely to play in why the maximum temperature was above average. You can have periods where you experience near normal to below normal temps."

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Nearly all the cities, including Erie, have warmed since 1970.

"It's hard to say if you are looking at month to month basis," Iverson said. "Even comparing the last two years, the number of days where we had temperatures above 90 degrees were the same. Both years (2025 and 2026) we had three days where the temperature was above 90, but the normal value for that is 1.8 degrees. The number of days where we are experiencing a temperature above 90 is increasing."

Contact Nicholas Sorensen at nsorensen@usatodayco.com .

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Climate change leads to warmer July in Erie, index tool shows