Daniel Swain in Mashable: The fall heat wave was gnarly

Temperature records toppled, and some were smashed, over a vast region of the U.S. this past fall week, including record October highs in Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Newark, Raleigh, Nashville, New Orleans, Pensacola, Indianapolis, and beyond. 

And in the past week, over 300 daily record highs were broken. 

But, it’s not the number of records that’s so exceptional, noted Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

“It’s the geographic scope that’s striking,” Swain said.