RE: Where I live in Texas, we have been running about 3 degrees above normal for June and July.
Has it never happened before?
Nope, it is a climate emergency. The planet has a fever.
Where I live in central Oklahoma, it has been below average about 7 of the last 18 months, and above average only two. Even this July, we will be average or below, even with a couple of hot ugly days this week.
In central Texas we are challenging (but not always beating) records set in 2011.
A couple of weeks ago we did break a record that was set in 1923.
“Has it never happened before?”
When I moved to Texas back in 2006, it was 114 the day I moved in.