Last month was the hottest ever recorded in the continental United States, according to government forecasters.

The average temperature was 77.6 degrees Fahrenheit, 3.3 degrees warmer than the 20th-century average, making last month the warmest July on record. The previous warmest July for the nation was July 1936, when the average temperature was 77.4 degrees.

And that summer heat keeps 2012 on pace to become the country's warmest year since record-keeping began in 1895, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said yesterday.

The previous 12 months are already the hottest on record for the continental United States, breaking the record set from July 2011 to June 2012 by 0.07 degree Fahrenheit.

Higher-than-average temperatures blanketed the drought-stricken Plains and Midwest, as well as the Eastern Seaboard.

Accompanying that record-breaking heat were unusually dry conditions across much of the country. Last month was among the 10 driest Julys ever recorded in Maine, Missouri, Nebraska, Illinois and Iowa, NOAA said.

And that has helped cement the drought that now covers 62.46 percent of the lower 48 states, according to figures released today by the National Drought Monitor.

Overall, temperatures in the Midwest and Great Plains continue to be 5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, the drought monitor said.

Recent rains have helped lessen the drought's impact in southern Minnesota and southern and eastern Wisconsin, as well as small patches of the Dakotas, the report said.

But the Midwest continues to suffer the effects of "oppressive heat ... depleted soil moisture, desiccated pastures and widespread crop damages, livestock culling and elevated fire risk," the drought monitor added.

Drought conditions have worsened across Missouri and Arkansas, with more of those states classified as undergoing "extreme" or "exceptional" drought. Conditions are also growing drier in much of the Great Plains, with "exceptional" drought spreading across Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas.

"These areas can't seem to shake off last year's drought and have now been dragged back into it this year, with the exception being southeastern Texas," the drought monitor said.