Go Big Or Stay Inside

The only thing worse than record-setting heat is not setting a record for hottest month ever:

By the time Saturday ended, the average temperature for July 31 was recorded at 76 degrees, low enough to drag down the monthly average to 81.3, dooming July 2010 to second place. The Olympic-scale margin: a mere tenth of a degree.

All that sweat — for nothing?

“If July had 30 days, instead of 31 days, we would have broken the record,” said Matt Scalora, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Upton, N.Y.