Deke Arndt, with the National Climatic Data Center, said historically, Texas is usually warmer on any given month — warmer in 113 out of 117 Junes, warmer in 85 out of 117 Julys, warmer in 92 out of 116 Augusts — but Oklahoma usually gets the most intense heat in the most intense years.

Where will this summer of 2011 end up in terms of the hottest statewide average temperatures on record in the U.S.?

Texas had a hotter June. Then, Oklahoma had the hottest July of any state on record.

“The best that we can tell, using crude methods on unofficial and incomplete data, the summer temperature is literally tied with two days to go,” Arndt said Tuesday.

And the final statistics will not necessarily be available right away.

“Because about a third of the stations still come in on paper from NOAA's volunteer cooperative observers, it literally takes weeks to get a finally-final summer temperature,” he said. “We won't decisively know until fall. Like maybe October.