Firstly heat wave of the year is expected to maintain its dominance in the U.S. Southwest for at least one more day on Friday, a day after records fell across the region with temperatures soaring as high as 110 degrees. F (43 degrees Celsius) from southeastern California to Arizona.
Although the official start of summer is two weeks away, nearly half of Arizona and Nevada are under an extreme heat warning, which the National Weather Service has extended through Friday night. . The warning has been extended through Saturday in Las Vegas, where the start of the year has never been hotter.
“Temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal can be expected, with record high temperatures possible in some locations through Friday,” the weather service in Las Vegas said. Temperatures will gradually decrease over the weekend but will remain above normal through early next week, the agency said.
“It’s so hot,” said Eleanor Wallace, 9, who was visiting Phoenix from northern Utah on Thursday on a birthday hike with her mother, Megan Wallace. .
The National Weather Service in Phoenix, where a new record high of 113 F (45 C) on Thursday surpassed the old mark of 111 F (44 C) set in 2016, called the weather “ dangerously hot.”
There were no immediate reports of any heat-related deaths or serious injuries.
But at a campaign rally for the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in PhoenixEleven people fell ill with heat exhaustion late in the afternoon and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, fire officials said.
And in Las Vegas, with a new record of 111 (43.8 C) on Thursday, also the earliest of the year, the high reached at least 110 (43.3 C), the Clark County Fire Department said. know they responded to at least 12 emergency calls. heat exposure since midnight Wednesday. Nine of those calls resulted in a patient needing hospital treatment.
Several other areas in Arizona, California and Nevada also broke records by a degree or two, including Death Valley National Park with a record high of 122 (50 C) topped by 121 (49.4 C). C) dated 1996 in the desert. located 194 feet (59 meters) below sea level near the California-Nevada line. Records there date back to 1911.
The heat has arrived even a few weeks earlier than usual in places farther north at higher elevations – areas that are often dozens of degrees cooler. That includes Reno, where the normal high of 81 F (27 C) for this time of year rose to a record 98 F (37 C) on Thursday. Records there date back to 1888.
The National Weather Service predicts temperatures will drop slightly across the region this weekend, but only by a few degrees. In central and southern Arizona, that still means temperatures will be in the triple digits, even reaching 110 F (43 C).
On Thursday in Phoenix, unusually hot weather didn’t stop Oscar Tomasio of Cleveland, Ohio, from proposing to his girlfriend, Megan McCracken, as they sweltered to the top of a Camelback Mountain trail with three liters of water. each person brings along.
“It was a tiring walk,” Tomasio told The Associated Press. “It was very hot so we started earlier.”
“The scenery is beautiful. We couldn’t reach the top because she was a bit nervous because of the heat,” he said. “So I proposed to her at sunrise.”
McCracken confirmed they planned to hike at sunrise and woke up around 5 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat and impending trail closure.
“Maybe not soon enough,” she said.
“We started just a few minutes after 6 and it looked like we were prepared, but we were drank all the water and it was very hot — hotter. than we are used to.”
