Currently in Chicago — July 1, 2024: A sunny start to July

The weather, currently.

As we move into the second half of 2024, we’ll see July open with a lovely clear day with a high near 70. The rest of the week will be cloudy, rainy, and hot, though I can’t say I’m sad to hear we’ll have rain leading into a week certain to be filled with illegal explosives.

After learning that Chicago broke a 137-year-old heat record in June, this forecast for July doesn’t look quite as extreme: a typical hot and humid month of Chicago summer. I’m looking forward to watermelon salad, honey lemonade, and catching up on my beach reading!

— Katje Sabin

What you can do, currently.

A Media Matters analysis found that last year — the hottest calendar year on record — network coverage of climate actually declined in the US. What’s worse, just 12% of reports about climate change mentioned fossil fuels as the driving cause. The media still reported on extreme weather, but stopped short of making the climate connection.

Independent climate journalism like Currently is needed more than ever. And this year, with all of these weather warnings already underway, we’ll unfortunately have plenty of opportunities to do better.