Global Extreme Weather and Climate Change Dashboard

A project by Roger Pielke Jr., author of The Honest Broker · Data last updated August 19, 2026

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Heat Waves — North America Heat Wave Index

Annual

North America's heat wave headline defaults to the US-only WSDI index (NOAA nClimGrid-Daily, homogenized) -- the US dominates the continent's population and data density, and this longer, gridded record clears the 30-year minimum where the continent-wide GSN station index (selectable below) does not yet. Unit: days per year.

Source: NOAA NCEI nClimGrid-Daily (homogenized), via the sibling US Extreme Weather Dashboard

Computing trend…

Defaults to the sibling US Extreme Weather Dashboard's own WSDI headline metric (nClimGrid-Daily, 1951-present) as a stand-in for the continent; the continent-wide GSN station index (2000-present, still under the 30-year minimum) remains selectable above. See Methodology for the full station-density comparison across continents.