September 4, 2024
4 min read
Brutal Heat Wave Will Extend Streak of 100 Days of 100 Degrees F
Summer has been brutally hot in the Southwest, toppling records set just last year, and the heat isn’t over yet
For the past 100 days in Phoenix, Ariz., the temperature has risen to—and often well above—100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius). In this city and much of the heat-weary Southwest, that streak will last at least a few more days as yet another heat dome settles over the area and sends temperatures soaring.
The heat wave punctuates what has been a record-hot summer for parts of the Southwest, including the major cities of Phoenix and Las Vegas–one that has toppled the previous records for the hottest meteorological summer set in those cities just last year. “It’s kind of rare to see that happen two years in a row,” says Matt Salerno, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s (NWS’s) Phoenix office. “That’s quite the feat.” It’s even more startling that the city broke its record from last year by nearly two degrees F (one degree C), with an average temperature of 98.9 degrees F (37.2 degrees C). “That’s incredible, just to think of the average temperature that we’re living in here in Phoenix,” Salerno says.
Las Vegas has also set records by “just about any metric you look at,” says Matt Woods, a meteorologist at the NWS’s Las Vegas office. “It’s been brutal.”
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In both cities, the tenor of the heat has been a little different this summer compared with that of last summer. The Southwest started off with a mild June last year, followed by a July that was…
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