Will 2012 be the Hottest Summer on Record?

Records have fallen for the past few days in part of Arkansas as well. In some cases, temperatures have climbed past 110 degrees.

Summer has definitely arrived in the United States with record-breaking temperatures soaring into the triple digits, and relief is slow to follow. The sizzling heat may not subside for a week, possibly longer.

From Kansas to Washington, heat warnings, watches and advisories spanned 730,000 square miles, affecting about 100 million people on Friday alone.

Excessive heat warnings were posted for 12 states, from Nebraska to New Jersey, on Friday by the National Weather Service.

As fierce thunderstorms battered their way across the Midwest to the Atlantic Seaboard on Friday night, the wicked weather caused mass power outages, leaving residents to suffer the heat without air conditioning.

Deaths possibly related to the heat are still being investigated. People are checking on their neighbors, and cities are putting cooling centers into place and extending pool hours.

The temperatures soaring above 100 degrees are nowhere near normal for this time of year in the United States, Morris said.

But we've experienced hideously hot ones before the dog days of summer officially set in before.

Last year - which was declared the hottest summer on record in Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana and New Mexico by The Weather Channel - featured some wicked days.

In its list of all-time record highs, The Weather Channel reported that Childress, Texas, climbed to 117 degrees on June 26 last year, beating any temperature on record for any month, dating back to 1893.

Borger, Texas, and Gage, Oklahoma, both hit 113 degrees on June 26, while Fort Smith, Arkansas, hit 115 degrees on August 3.