Scorching Heat Keeps Grip on US Southwest as Records Fall and More Triple-Digit Predictions

RENO, Nevada – The first heat wave of the year is expected to keep its grip on the southwestern United States for at least another day on Friday, a day after records were set across the region with temperatures surpassing 110 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) from southeastern California to Arizona. .

Although the official start of summer is still two weeks away, about half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat warning, which the National Weather Service extended through Friday night. The warning was extended until Saturday in Las Vegas, where it has never been so hot this early in the year.

“High temperatures 10 to 15 degrees above normal can be expected, with record high temperatures likely in some locations through Friday,” the Las Vegas weather service said. normal at the beginning of next week.

“It’s so hot,” said Eleanor Wallace, 9, who was visiting Phoenix from northern Utah on Thursday on a hike to celebrate her birthday with her mother, Megan Wallace.

The National Weather Service in Phoenix, where Thursday’s new record of 113 F (45 C) surpassed the old mark of 111 F (44 C) set in 2016, called conditions “dangerously hot.”

There were no immediate reports of heat-related deaths or serious injuries.

But at a campaign rally for the presumptive Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in Phoenix11 people fell ill from heat exhaustion in the late afternoon and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, fire officials said.

And in Las Vegas, with a new record high of 111 (43.8 C) on Thursday, which also tied the first time of the year, the high reached at least 110 (43.3 C), the County Fire Department said. of Clark said he has responded to at least 12 calls for heat exposure since midnight Wednesday. Nine of those calls resulted in a patient requiring hospital treatment.

Several other areas of Arizona, California and Nevada also broke records by a degree or two, including Death Valley National Park, with a record for the date of 122 (50 C) surpassing the 121 (49.4 C) dated 1996 in the desert that is 194 feet (59 meters) below sea level, near the California-Nevada line. Records there date back to 1911.

The heat has arrived weeks earlier than normal, even in places further north, at higher altitudes – areas typically a dozen degrees cooler. That includes Reno, where the normal high of 81 F (27 C) for this time of year soared to a record 98 F (37 C) on Thursday. Records there date back to 1888.

The National Weather Service predicts moderate cooling across the region this weekend, but only by a few degrees. In central and southern Arizona, this will still mean triple-digit highs, up to 110 F (43 C).

On Thursday in Phoenix, unseasonably warm weather didn’t stop Oscar Tomasio of Cleveland, Ohio, from proposing to his girlfriend, Megan McCracken, as they summited a Camelback Mountain trail with 3 gallons of water each. one in tow.

“It was a tiring walk,” Tomasio told the Associated Press. “It was really hot, so we started really early.”

“The views were beautiful. We didn’t make it to the top because she was a little nervous about the heat,” he said. “So I asked her to marry me when the sun came up.”

McCracken confirmed that he had planned a sunrise hike and woke up around 5 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat and the impending trail closure.

“It’s probably not soon enough,” she said.

Megan Wallace, mother of the birthday girl from Utah who also came packing bottles of water, said: “We started a few minutes after 6 and it’s like we came prepared, but we drank all our water and it was hot – it was hotter than we’re used to. .”

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Associated Press writers Anita Snow and Ty O’Neil in Phoenix and Rio Yamat and Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.