MIAMI — The thermometer at Miami’s official weather station reached 100 degrees on the afternoon of Aug. 18, tying the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city — a mark that had stood for 84 years, CBS Miami reported.
The only other time Miami officially hit the century mark was July 21, 1942, according to CBS Miami. That a record from the World War II era survived until now says something about South Florida’s climate: the ocean typically caps air temperatures even as humidity makes summer feel far hotter than the number on the thermometer.
This summer, that felt-heat has been relentless. Even on days when readings stayed in the low to mid-90s, humidity pushed the heat index regularly to between 105 and 112 degrees. During the mid-August stretch, some of the region’s hottest readings included a 117-degree heat index in North Miami, 116 in Palmetto Bay and 115 in Coconut Grove, WSVN reported.
Officials Urge Caution
The National Weather Service warned of a major risk of heat-related illness across most of South Florida, meaning heat illness is likely without proper cooling and hydration. Health officials urged families to limit time outdoors during the hottest part of the day, stay hydrated and take frequent breaks in air conditioning, according to WSVN.
The timing compounded the strain: the record fell during the first full week of the new school year, when hundreds of thousands of students across Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties were adjusting to outdoor pickup lines, athletics practices and portable classrooms. Districts opened the year under heat advisories, the South Shore Journal reported.
Forecasters said a pattern change later in the week would allow afternoon thunderstorms to return, offering at least some relief, per CBS Miami. Near-record heat had been building across the region since late July, when forecasters first flagged the possibility of record highs in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, CBS Miami reported.
For a region already debating outdoor worker protections, cooling infrastructure and the long-term costs of a warming climate, the 100-degree reading lands less as a curiosity than as a data point in a trend residents feel every time they step outside.
