The first big heat wave of the year is gripping the Southwest, bringing excessive heat warnings and record temperatures throughout. On Friday, following a day of unprecedented heat, temperatures soared above 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) from California to Arizona.
Despite summer still being two weeks away, about fifty percent of Nevada and Arizona were under an excessive heat advisory which the National Weather Service has extended until Friday evening. The alert was likewise prolonged until Saturday in Las Vegas where this has never been seen so early within a year.
Temperatures are anticipated to slowly dip over the weekend but will stay above average into early next week.
On Thursday, Las Vegas broke its own record for the earliest it reached 110 F (43.3 C) by recording 111 F (43.8 C). Again on Friday afternoon, it topped out at 2013’s all-time high of 110 F (48.3 C). By sunset, “it could get even hotter,” warned National Weather Service.
Phoenix set new high temperature records on Thursday when it hit 113°F (45°C), surpassing the previous record set in 2016 by two degrees. Forecasters dubbed them as “dangerously hot.”
The dry heat was quite apparent to Eleanor Wallace who had come there from northern Utah to celebrate her birthday with a hike in Phoenix at just nine years old. She said “it’s so hot” meaningfully.
There have been no immediate reports of fatalities resulting from extreme temperatures nor any serious injuries. However, at least eleven people were taken to hospital due to heat exhaustion during Trump’s campaign rally in Phoenix yesterday where he received his presumptive Republican presidential nominee nomination. Trump is also scheduled to hold another rally in Las Vegas on Sunday with a projected high of one hundred four degrees Fahrenheit(40C).
The slight reduction in temperature levels predicted by the National Weather Service over this weekend across our area does not mean that things would become much better. This means that even by Saturday, temperatures in the central and southern Arizona as well as parts of Southern Nevada will peak into triple digits, and this might go up to 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 C).
Other areas also witnessed record-breaking heat on Thursday, including Death Valley National Park where it reached a record high of 122 F (50 C) breaking the previous mark of 121 F (49.4 C) set in 1996. Records at Death Valley date back to 1911.
The heat wave arrived earlier than usual, even in higher-elevation areas typically cooler by about a dozen degrees.For instance Reno was 17 degrees above normal for June with a high temperature of 98F on Thursday instead of their usual average of around eighty one degree Fahrenheit for this time of the year.Reno has been keeping records right from its earliest history in1888.
On Thursday morning Oscar Tomasio from Cleveland Ohio proposed to his long-term girlfriend Megan McCracken while they were hiking Camelback Mountain despite Phoenix’s sweltering heat. Each had three liters’ bottles of water so that they could beat the heat and avoid closure.
“It was really hard,” Tomasio said. “It was extra hot so we started extra early. The views were beautiful. We didn’t make it quite to the top because she was a little nervous with the heat. So I proposed to her when the sun rose.”
She stated that they chose to start their hike at sunrise because they hoped to escape excessive heat; as a result, they got up before dawn around five o’clock.“Probably not early enough,” she added.
