The first heat wave of the year maintained its grip on the U.S. Southwest on Friday, after records tumbled across the region with temperatures soaring past 110 degrees Fahrenheit from California to Arizona.
Although the official start of summer is still two weeks away, roughly half of Arizona and Nevada were under an excessive heat alert, which the National Weather Service extended until Friday evening.
David Trampp is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Phoenix. He said while the heat will back off slightly over the weekend, it won’t feel much different.
“We’ve got some clouds moving into the area, a little moisture,” said Trampp. “Nothing that’s gonna fall on the ground and .. going to affect any one of us living here in the Valley, or the desert regions.”
Trampp said Monday is expected to be slightly cooler at around 105 degrees, followed by another spike in temperature.
“It’s so hot,” said Eleanor Wallace, 9, who was visiting Phoenix from northern Utah on Thursday on a hike celebrating her birthday with her mother, Megan Wallace.
The National Weather Service in Phoenix, where the new record high of 113 F on Thursday leap-frogged the old mark of 111 F set in 2016, called the conditions “dangerously hot.”
The low temperature was 87 degrees at Phoenix Sky Harbor which potentially breaks the previous record of 85 degrees set in 1977 for record highest low temperature. This is also 11 degrees above normal. #azwx pic.twitter.com/kq5AGejTK5
— NWS Phoenix (@NWSPhoenix) June 7, 2024
There were no immediate reports of any heat-related deaths or serious injuries.
But at a campaign rally for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump in Phoenix, 11 people fell ill from heat exhaustion by late afternoon and were taken to the hospital, where they were treated and released, fire officials said.
Several other areas of Arizona, California and Nevada also broke records by a degree or two, including Death Valley National Park with a record high for the date of 122 F topping the 121 F dating to 1996 in the desert that sits 194 feet below sea level near the California-Nevada line. Records there date to 1911.
The National Weather Service forecast mild cooling regionwide this weekend, but only by a few degrees. In central and southern Arizona, that will still mean triple-digit highs, even up to 110 F.
On Thursday in Phoenix, the unseasonably hot weather did not prevent Oscar Tomasio of Cleveland, Ohio, from proposing to his girlfriend, Megan McCracken, as they sweltered to the peak of a trail on Camelback Mountain with 3 liters of water each in tow.
“It was a grueling hike,” Tomasio told The Associated Press. “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," he said. "So I proposed to her when the sun rose.”
McCracken confirmed they'd planned a sunrise hike and awoke about 5 a.m. in an effort to beat the heat and an impending closure of the trail.
“Probably not early enough,” she said.
Megan Wallace, mother of the birthday girl from Utah who also came packing water bottles, said: "We started just a few minutes after 6 and it’s like we came prepared, but we got through all of our water and it was hot — was hotter than we’re used to.”
Metro Phoenix forecast
Friday: Sunny and hot, with a high near 110 and low around 81. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 108 and low of 82.
Sunday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 104 and a low around 78.
Monday: Sunny, with a high near 103 and with a low around 79.
Tuesday: Sunny, with a high near 107 and a low around 80.
Wednesday: Sunny, with a high near 108 and a low around 78.