This summer has been unrelentingly hot. Humidity is making it feel worse.

Hot, sticky and unrelenting: That has been the experience for much of the country this summer, including more than a dozen states that had record high humidity in July

Hot, sticky and unrelenting: That has been the experience for much of the country this summer, including more than a dozen states that had record high humidity in July.

Last month was muggier than usual for the majority of the Lower 48. Parts of the Midwest, East Coast and mid-Atlantic regions, in particular, were intensely humid in July, according to preliminary data compiled by researchers at Oregon State University.

Hot and humid conditions are to be expected in the summer, but heat index values — what conditions “feel like” when humidity and air temperatures are combined — soared well into the triple digits for extended periods of time in places such as Ohio, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida last month.

Cities such as Pittsburgh; Roanoke, Virginia; and Washington, D.C., all registered their most humid July in recorded history, according to figures compiled by the Iowa Environmental Mesonet, which collects and tracks data on precipitation, soil temperature and other environmental conditions. New York City and Raleigh, North Carolina, had their second-most-humid July, while humidity in Detroit and Cincinnati reached their third-highest levels last month.

In Paducah, Kentucky, a brutal stretch of high heat and humidity from July 16 to 30 set a slew of new records for the city.