June and July 2016 are the warmest June and July on record and the 14th and 15th straight months in which such records have been set. July is the hottest month in recorded history.

Between 2011 and 2014, Greenland lost a trillion tons of ice. 

Thawing permafrost causes the Alaska Highway to sink and buckle. In Siberia, ancient bacteria released by warming permafrost lead to an outbreak of the deadly infectious disease anthrax.

The White House directs all federal agencies to consider the climate implications of their actions and, when possible, to quantify them.

Thick mats of toxic algae clog waterways in California and Utah and the Great Lakes. In Florida, a bloom the size of Miami closes beaches and kills manatees. The Tampa Bay Times quotes a resident as likening the stench to "death on a cracker."

The National Park Service ends a 20-year research program in Alaska because state game agents have killed so many wolves—some shot from helicopters and airplanes—that the predator population "is no longer in a natural state." The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service now forbids such hunts in national wildlife refuges. 

On Tuesday, July 12, California's industrial-scale solar plants set a new record by generating enough electricity to power 6 million homes.  

The Republican Party platform passed at the GOP convention in July declares coal to be a "clean . . . energy resource."

A New York Times investigation finds that Mississippi's Kemper coal plant, which is supposed to show the viability of "clean coal," is years behind schedule, $4 billion over budget, and plagued by fraud and mismanagement. 

The Zika virus spreads rapidly in the continental United States—2,487 confirmed cases are travel-related, 22 are sexually transmitted, and 29 are traced to domestic mosquitoes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues a travel warning for Miami-Dade County, the first time such a warning is issued for a U.S. location. 

America's first offshore wind turbine is installed off Block Island, Rhode Island. 

Mercedes-Benz unveils the world's first all-electric big rig.

The Fish and Wildlife Service declares that three subspecies of diminutive foxes endemic to Southern California's Channel Islands are fully recovered after being on the endangered-species list for 12 years. It is the fastest recovery ever for a mammal on the list.

The city council of Oakland, California, bans coal from being handled or stored there, dooming a large bulk coal terminal that Utah companies had hoped to build at the city's port.

Increasingly hot summers are causing Douglas fir trees to stop growing.

According to a study in Science, the hole in Earth's ozone layer over Antarctica is healing. This is largely a result of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which banned the use of chlorofluorocarbons in air conditioners and aerosol sprays.