Weather News

Dallas wins No. 1 top honor on list of hottest cities in U.S. this week

Hat tip to Fire of Love, the 2022 documentary by Sara Dosa, for this fiery image.

Photo courtesy of Image'Est

Texas wins this week with three cities earning top slots on a list of the hottest cities in the U.S. for June 27.

According to The Washington Post, Dallas was the No. 1 most hottest city for the day, followed by Fort Worth and Austin. San Antonio and Houston came in on the list at No. 5 and No. 6.

Perhaps it's no coincidence that all five of those cities also have their own local CultureMap bureaus? #hot #buzzy

Wednesday, June 28 is expected to get even hotter. The National Weather Service issued an excessive heat advisory for Dallas, Collin, Denton, and Tarrant counties, though 8 pm Wednesday. Dallas is supposed to reach 107 degrees, with a heat index of 115 degrees.

As Ben Noll, a meteorologist with New Zealand’s National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research, tweeted, Texas will be hotter on June 28 than 99 percent of the rest of the world, including the Sahara Desert and the Persian Gulf.

The cause — and also the buzzy hot weather phrase for 2023 — is a "Heat Dome." A heat dome is where hot air gets trapped into a certain space. The Associated Press says it occurs when “stationary high pressure with warm air combines with warmer than usual air in the Gulf of Mexico and heat from the sun that is nearly directly overhead.”

During late June, Dallas usually averages 93 degrees.

Climate scientist Andrew Pershing says that what makes this heat wave unusual is how long it has lasted, stating, "There have been places in Texas that have had more than two weeks of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which are just really unusual temperatures for this time of year even in a region that is used to heat."

But the year 2022 was also bad, with many cities across South Texas experiencing the hottest May on record.

Texas is coming on strong for breaking records in 2023, besting record-breakers from prior years such as the Pacific Northwest which experienced record-breaking heat waves in 2022, and Reno, which had the hottest night in history in July 2022.

According to ABC13 in Houston, Wednesday will be the 16th day in a row with some kind of heat-related weather alert for southeast Texas. In Austin, the heat index hit 116 degrees on June 15, the highest on record for the city. Other Texas cities have already broken records this year, including Del Rio, San Angelo, and Laredo.

It's not just Texas: A story inThe Guardian notes that nearby states including New Mexico, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri are also experiencing scorching heat, with the National Weather Service predicting temperatures to rise further and stay this way through the 4th of July.

nature sustainability weather

Hottest Headlines of 2025

The top 10 stories that defined city life in Dallas in 2025

Southern Methodist University class of 2029

SMU/Facebook

Southern Methodist University is the 103rd best college nationwide, and it ranked No. 5 in Texas, Forbes says.

Editor's note: Stories about city life were some of our most-read headlines of the year in Dallas. Readers devoured stories about suburbs, schools, and transportation, curious to see what made the best-of cut for scores of rankings. And, of course, we all needed to check in with the world's richest people and see which ones live in Texas.

Here's a look back at the most-read Dallas city life stories of 2025:

1. 5 Dallas high schools rank among America's best in 2025, per U.S. News. Five prestigious Dallas-area high schools are living up to their reputations for top-tier education after being ranked among the best high schools in the country, according to U.S. News and World Report's annual rankings.

2. 27 Dallas billionaires land on new Forbes list of world's richest people. More billionaires have made it onto the 2025 World's Billionaires List than ever before, according to Forbes. This year, 27 Dallas billionaires are among the richest people in the world, including Elaine Marshall, Lyndal Stephens Greth, and Jerry Jones.

3. Techy Dallas suburb is No. 1 hot spot for remote workers in U.S. A SmartAsset survey of cities with the biggest remote workforces has revealed Frisco is the No. 1 city with the highest share of remote workers in the nation. The study found over 40,000 Frisco residents work from home, which is more than a third of all of the city's workers aged 16 and older (117,193 total workers).

Person working from home Working from home comes with its own challenges, like picking which part of the couch to work from. Photo by Jodie Cook on Unsplash

4. 3 affluent Dallas neighbors dominate new list of wealthiest U.S. suburbs. Three well-to-do Dallas-area communities — University Park, Southlake, and Colleyville — are among the wealthiest suburbs in America in 2025, a report confirmed. The three affluent Dallas neighbors were lauded in GoBankingRates ranking of the 50 wealthiest U.S. suburbs, based on 2022 and 2023 average household income data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau.

5. 4 Dallas-area universities make 2026 list of world’s best schools. The University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas, Southern Methodist University, and University of Texas at Arlington are among the top 1,200 schools included in the QS World University Rankings 2026. The Princeton Review agreed, also naming SMU, UTD, TCU, and University of Dallas to its best-in-the-U.S. list, while Forbes named six DFW universities to its list of America's top colleges.

6. 11 cities around Dallas make list of best places to live in the U.S. Nearly a dozen Dallas suburbs, including perennial favorite Flower Mound, have landed among the best places to live in 2025, according to U.S. News & World Report.

7. Dallas middle school ranks No. 1 in Texas for 2026, per U.S. News. More than a dozen Dallas-Fort Worth elementary and middle schools have excelled on U.S. News and World Report's just-released list of the best K-8 schools in Texas for 2026, with one that's first in class: The No. 1 best middle school in Texas is Dallas ISD's William B. Travis Academy/Vanguard for the Academically Talented and Gifted.

8. North Dallas suburb lauded as 5th best U.S. city for working parents. Frisco already has a reputation as a great place for families and a top spot for remote workers, so it's no surprise that the city has clocked in as one of the best places in the country for working parents, too.

Frisco Frisco ranked No. 5 nationwide in a 2025 study. Visit Frisco/Facebook

9. City of Dallas to put a pause on curbside trash collection issue. In October, the city of Dallas put the curbside trash collection debate on hold. According to a release, the Sanitation Department temporarily paused implementation of an alley-to-curb program that was approved, in order to evaluate additional options for continuing alley service where residents strongly prefer it.

10. Dallas suburb proclaimed 8th best U.S. city to drive in, per report. Dallas roadways are no picnic, but in one neighboring town, it's easy street: A report by WalletHub puts none other than Plano on its list of the top 10 best U.S. cities to drive in for 2025.