Summer | featured news

Special seats and other devices designed to help prevent parents from accidentally leaving babies and toddlers behind in cars don’t work, a team of experts said on Monday. They said parents shouldn’t rely on them to keep children safe.

For folks without air conditioning, an electric fan may seem like a life-saver in a steaming summer like this one. But researchers who looked at existing studies say it's possible fans do more harm than good when the temperature soars above 95 degrees. That's because blowing hot air over your body might actually increase heat stress and your risk of heat-related illness -- even if you feel like the fan is cooling you down. Better ideas: get out of your hot house and into a cool mall or library for a few hours; take cool showers.

It's been a hot year. In fact, the first six months of 2012 accounted for the warmest January-through-June period on record for the contiguous U.S., the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced Monday.

The summer heat just won't quit, with another scorcher forecast for the Midwest Friday. The sweltering temperatures may have claimed at least two lives so far, bringing back memories of the 1995 heat wave that killed hundreds. Much of the Midwest, and even parts of the East Coast are suffering.

A day after firefighters made great progress against the fire outside Colorado Springs, hotter and drier conditions on Saturday made for a major test.

Books for young readers are popping up in the top 25 of USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list.

Readers who insist on visiting the beach this summer — there is really nothing to see except sand and water, but I digress — need to make some fundamental decisions not just about what they want to read while dry-roasting themselves in the sun (new John Grisham vs. new Toni Morrison) but about how (e-reader device vs. Gutenberg device).

...And yet — step for a moment into the chill. The outdoor climate of our sweltering city is a false climate. It is merely the swamp through which we must wade to get to our true environment, a land of recirculated cold, spare blazers on backs of chairs and frostbite. Inside weather is the weather of the office worker. It’s summer outside, but indoors, it’s winter.

After recalculating data from last year, the nation's climatologists are declaring that Oklahoma suffered through the hottest summer ever recorded in the U.S. last year - not Texas as initially announced last fall.

Summer is officially here! Staying busy and active, taking trips, and cranking the AC can really do some damage to your pocketbook. Here are 9 easy ways to save this summer season.