It’s been a stormy and steamy summer across the U.S. so far in 2025

We’re just past the halfway point in meteorological summer—already!—and it’s been quite the steamy and stormy season for much of the country.

In fact, it’s just been a busy year for active weather in general. 

The year started with a historic snowstorm on the northern Gulf Coast and rolled right into our most tornadic spring since 2011. Severe weather has kept apace heading into this summer, as we’ve seen multiple flash flood disasters unfold in just the past couple of weeks.

If you’re tired of sweating the moment you walk out the door, don’t worry—it’s not just you. 

Mugginess is best measured using the dew point, which is the temperature at which the air is fully saturated.

Dew point values below 55°F are generally considered comfortable. You start to notice the humidity once the dew point hits 60°F. It feels sticky when the dew point reaches 65°F, and it’s downright tropical when dew point values hit 70°F or higher.

New York’s JFK Airport, as well as Greensboro, N.C., have seen a record number of hours with dew points at or above 70°F through July 16. Chicago’s year-to-date tropical mugginess ranks second on record there, while this year is in the third spot at Washington, D.C.’s National Airport. 

That’s a fair amount of excessive humidity, especially when combined with the heat we’ve seen this season.

An atmosphere rich in moisture is a breeding ground for intense thunderstorms capable of producing torrential rains. 

The above map shows the percent of normal precipitation across the U.S. over the past 30 days. Purple colors indicate above-average precipitation, while oranges represent below-normal precipitation. It’s easy to see areas that have been hit extremely hard by heavy rain over the past month. 

Portions of central Texas have seen as much as two feet (feet!) of rain over the past 30 days, which contributed to the devastating flash flooding in Kerr County back over the July 4th weekend. Repeated rounds of storms have also drenched portions of the central Plains, the Upper Midwest, and the Mid-Atlantic states—especially where Tropical Storm Chantal moved through North Carolina and Virginia.

The National Weather Service issued 3,106 flash flood warnings so far in 2025 through 11:20 a.m. on July 16. Many of those flash flood warnings covered areas hit hard by the carousel of tornado outbreaks during the spring months. 

For some context, that’s 3,106 flash flood warnings year-to-date. The entire year of 2020 only saw 2,874 flash flood warnings issued across the U.S.

47 of those flash flood warnings were upgraded to flash flood emergencies—much like tornado emergencies, this is enhanced wording deployed when destructive flash flooding is ongoing that poses a significant risk to life and property.

The flash flood emergency for Kerr County, Texas, had particularly chilly warning for folks in the area: “Automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River. Flash flooding is already occurring.”

The good folks at the Climate Prediction Center don’t see too much change over the next two weeks. While folks across Texas may have a chance to dry out, forecasters expect a pattern capable of producing above-average precipitation across the southeastern states and a large swath of the northern U.S.

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