Las Vegas On Track For Record 5th Straight Day Over 115F - Streak Could Run Through Friday

Las Vegas is on track to set a record for the most consecutive days over 115F (46C), amid a lingering hot spell that will continue scorching much of the US into the weekend. Forecasters say the desert city will probably hit a record fifth straight day above 115F on Wednesday. Even by desert standards, the prolonged baking the city is experiencing is nearly unprecedented.

“This is the most extreme heatwave in the history of record-keeping in Las Vegas since 1937,” said meteorologist John Adair, a veteran of three decades at the National Weather Service office in southern Nevada. Tuesday’s high temperature tied the mark of four straight days above 115F set in July 2005. And Adair said the record could be extended through Friday.

The extended heatwave comes with serious dangers, health officials have emphasized. “Even people of average age who are seemingly healthy can suffer heat illness when it’s so hot it’s hard for your body to cool down,” said Alexis Brignola, an epidemiologist at the Southern Nevada Health District.

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In Oregon, the city of Portland saw record daily temperatures on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and Salem set a new record, hitting 103F on Sunday. The excessive temperatures are suspected to have caused six deaths in the state, the state medical examiner’s office said on Tuesday. In California, the heat was blamed for a motorcyclist’s death in the Death Valley national park. Death Valley is considered one of the most extreme environments in the world. The hottest temperature ever officially recorded on Earth was 134F in July 1913 in Death Valley, though some experts dispute that measurement and say the real record was 130F, recorded there in July 2021.

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https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/10/las-vegas-heatwave-record-temperature