A report string of every day highs of greater than 43.3 C in Phoenix ended Monday as the damaging warmth wave that suffocated the Southwest all through July receded barely with cooling monsoon rains.
The historic warmth started blasting the area in June, stretching from Texas throughout New Mexico and Arizona and into California’s desert. Phoenix and its suburbs sweltered extra and longer than most, with a number of data together with the 31 consecutive days of 43.3 C temperatures and better. The earlier report was 18 straight days, set in 1974.
The streak was lastly damaged Monday, when the excessive topped out at 42.2 C at 3:10 p.m.
“The excessive temperature for Phoenix right now is 108 F,” Jessica Leffel, a meteorologist with the Nationwide Climate Service, stated at 5 p.m. “I am simply on the point of put up it on our social media.”
Phoenix additionally sweated by way of a report 16 consecutive days when in a single day lows did not dip beneath 32.2 C, making it onerous for individuals to chill off after the solar went down.
August could also be even hotter
The reprieve was anticipated to be temporary, with the forecast calling for highs once more above 43.3 C for a number of days later within the week.
And Nationwide Climate Service meteorologist Matthew Hirsch stated August might be even hotter than July.
In California this July, Loss of life Valley, lengthy thought-about the most popular place on Earth, flirted with among the hottest temperatures ever recorded, reaching 52.5 C on July 16 on the aptly named Furnace Creek.
The planet’s hottest recorded temperature ever was 56.67 C in July 1913 at Furnace Creek, in keeping with the World Meteorological Group, the physique acknowledged as keeper of world data.
And in Nevada, additionally on July 16, Las Vegas briefly reached 46.6 C to tie the report for that date set in 1998.
The warmth in Phoenix started to ease barely final week with town’s first main storm because the monsoon season started on June 15.
Lethal climate occasions throughout U.S.
The Southwest warmth wave was only one sort of excessive climate occasion that hit the U.S. in July.
Deadly flash floods swept individuals and automobiles away in Pennsylvania, and days of flooding led to harmful mudslides within the Northeast.
At a number of factors throughout the month, as many as a 3rd of Individuals have been below some kind of warmth advisory, watch or warning.
Whereas not as visually dramatic as different pure disasters, consultants say warmth waves are deadlier — warmth in elements of the South and Midwest killed greater than a dozen individuals in June.
Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous space that’s house to Phoenix, reported 25 heat-related deaths this yr as of July 21.
One other 249 deaths are listed as below investigation, and outcomes from toxicological checks that may take weeks or months after an post-mortem may result in many being confirmed as heat-related.
Maricopa County reported 425 heat-associated deaths in 2022, with greater than half of these in July.