A record-breaking summer

Record temperatures across the globe, a record-breaking hurricane in Florida, and a once-in-a-century tropical storm in Southern California. The weather this summer has seemed out of control.

It seems like climate change is on our doorstep, leaving some experts predicting that record weather may become our new norm.

What have Americans made of the extreme weather? Below are five charts on this summer’s record-breaking weather, how Americans feel about the environment, and how partisanship affects Americans’ opinions on climate change.

1. Sweltering summer. If you thought this summer was a hotter than usual, you’d be onto something. This July was the hottest month of July ever recorded. The impacts of climate change are real. Things are heating up.
2. Not a top concern (yet). Americans care about extreme weather, but not as much as they care about the economy. But the concern with the environment has grown over the past decade. As record-setting temperature increasingly becomes the norm, can we expect climate change to evolve into a top political issue?
3. An issue of note. It may not be Americans’ top issue, but extreme weather stands out compared to the humdrum of the typical news cycle. This summer, record-breaking temperatures stuck out as the story that Americans both knew most about and cared most about. The more extreme weather affects them, the more Americans seem to notice.
4. Two Americas. The story about climate change is intertwined with politics. Partisanship affects how Americans view both climate change and the weather itself. Democrats are more likely to think that extreme weather events have become more frequent in the past 10 years compared than Republicans. Two political spectrums, two different realities.
5. Climate action. These partisan differences bleed into the behaviors Americans are willing to adopt for the sake of climate change. Across the board, Democrats are more willing than Republicans to do things like use public transportation, pay extra fees and taxes to combat climate change, and trade in their current vehicle for an electric vehicle.

Climate change is on our doorstep. This summer saw a handful of climate records set, and its seeming like this could be our new norm.

Even so, Americans’ stance on the issue is still stained by politics. As concern around the climate continues to grow, will these partisan divisions remain? We will see.