The Midwest’s warming hole means humid, cooler summer afternoons

Summer afternoon temperatures have cooled off in the middle of the country in recent decades. But hotter nights and winters are still driving more overall warmth in the region.

By one measure, summers in the middle of the country have actually gotten cooler.

The Midwest and Great Plains are in what some scientists call a “warming hole” — summertime high temperatures have gotten measurably cooler in recent decades.

“Our climate is changing, but just a little bit differently than the general trend that we talk about nationally or globally,” said Missouri’s state climatologist Zack Leasor. “We're still seeing these warming temperatures, but it looks different than other locations.”

From eastern Texas and Louisiana up through the Dakotas and Minnesota, the average high daily temperatures h